Bianca's age?

[Ben Johnson]

   "Tom Thumb weddings have been popular for over a hundred years," Kathleen wrote, "and are still performed in some parts of the country today.  I understand they were quite common, being a sort of pageant staged as a social event when there was a lull in the social season or lack of another motive to get dressed up and go out.  I've seen photos of Tom Thumb weddings, and they seem like they were often, in fact, a way to showcase cute children."
         There is no doubt about what started the Tom Thumb wedding phenomenon in America.  For that we can thank American showman Phineas T. Barnum.  He "discovered" the original Tom Thumb, whose name was actually Charles Sherwood Stratton.  Stratton was born on January 4, 1838, in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Sherwood Edward Stratton, a carpenter, and his wife, Cynthia.  The boy's "normal" sized adults were reportedly embarrassed that their son was a dwarf.
         According to information provided by the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut,  P. T. Barnum discovered Charles Bratton at age 4, at which time the boy measured 25 inches and weighed 15 pounds, only six pounds more than his birth weight.  With the permission of the child's parents, Barnum took custody of him, gave him the stage name of "General Tom Thumb," and taught him to sing, dance, mime and act.  By the age of ten, Tom had already been the guest of President Polk, Queen Victoria, Isabella of Spain, and King Louis Philippe of France.
         Tom Thumb eventually attained a height of 33 inches and weighed 70 pounds.  On February 10, 1863, when Tom was 25, he and Lavinia Warren, who was also a dwarf, were married in a fashionable wedding at New York City's Grace Episcopal Church.  The newlyweds stood atop a grand piano and received 2,000 guests.   In the course of the wedding trip that followed, President Lincoln, our tallest president, received them at the White House.
         Tom and Lavinia continued to entertain audiences in the United States and abroad until their retirement in 1882.  Tom died of a stroke on July 15, 1883 at the age of 45, and his funeral was attended by more than 10,000 people.
         It wasn't long after Tom and Lavinia's spectacular wedding had taken place that a new type of entertainment appeared in America.  The attraction involved dressing young children as bride, groom and bridal party, then re-enacting the famous nuptials of Tom and Lavinia -- hence the name "Tom Thumb wedding."  Originally these affairs were often commercial ventures put on for profit by a company that specialized in staging "Tom Thumb weddings."  The company would come into a town, sign up the children in the community to participate, provide them with the necessary costumes and props, and promise all of the youthful participants ice cream if they were cooperative during the mock wedding.  The Tom Thumb wedding took very little preparation on the part of the children, and it always ensured a full house of proud parents and relatives who would pay to see the children on stage.  The company usually made a tidy profit, since overhead was minimal.

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/column118.htm
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