The Georgetown news., 1855-12-06
Seeing the Elephant.

The origin of this now common and ex-
pressive phrase Is thus described in one of
our exchanges:
Some years since at one Of the Philadel-
phla theaterS, a pageant was in rehearsal in
which 1t was necessary to have an elephant.
No elephant was to be had. The wild
beasts were all travelling, and the property
man. stage director and manager, almost
had fits when they thought Of it. DAYS
passed in the hopeless task of endeavoring
to secure one, but at last Yankee ingenuity
triumphed, as, indeed it always does; and
an elephant was duly made to order, of
wood. skins, paint and yarnish. Thus far
the matter was all well, but as vet they had
found no means to make the SAID combna-
tion travel. Here, again, the genius of the
manager, stage director and property man
stuck out, and twoof the 'supes' were duly
installed as legs. Ned C, one of the
true and genuine 'b'hoys, held the response
bic station OF forelegS, and for several nights
he played that heavy part to the entire sat
isiaction Of the manager, and the delight Of
the audience. The part, however, was a
very tedious one, as the elephant was
obliged to be on the stage for about an
hour, and Ned was rather too fond of the
bottle to remain SO long without 'wetting
his whistle so he set his wits to work to
find way to carry q wee drop with him.
The eyes Of the elephans being made of two
porter bottles. with the necks in, Ned con-
ceiyed the brilliant idea of filling them with
good stuff. This he fully carried out, and
elated with his success, willingly undertook
to play the fore-legS again.
Night came; the theater was crowded
with the denizens Of the Quaker city, the
music played its sweetest strains, the whis-
tie sounded, the curtain rose, and the play
began. Ned and the hind legs marched
upon the stage. The elephant was greeted
with round upon round of applause. The
decorations, the trappings were gorgeous
the Prince seated on his elephant vas
marched round and round the stage The
fore legs got dry, and withdrew one of the
cOrls, treated the hind legs. and drank the
health of the audience in a bumper of gen
uine elephant eye whiskey, brand, by the
way, till then unknown. On went the play
on went Ned drinking. The concluding
march was to be made-the signal was Civ
en-, and the fore legs staggered upon the
stage. The conductor pulled the ear of the
elephant to the right-the fore legs stag
gered to the left-the foot-Ights obstructed
his way-he raised his feet and stepped
plump into the orchestra! Down went fore
legs on the leaders, fddle-over of course
turned the elephant, sending the prince
closely followed by the hind legs, into the
middle of the pit. The manager stood hor-
ror struck-the prince and hind legs lay
cOnfounded-the boxes in convulsions, the
actors choking with laughter. And poor
Ned casting one look, a strange blending OF
drunkenness, grief and laughter, at the
scene, fed hastily out of the theater, closely
followed by the leader with the wreck of
his fiddle, performing various cut and thrust
motions in the air Imagine the scene
paint it for me, some one, if you can.
The result, reader, can you not picture
it? The curtain dropped on scene from
behind the scenes" !" No more pageant
no more fore legs, but everybody holding
their sides, music, actors, gallery and bexes
rushed from the theater, shrieking between
every breath, Haze you seen the elephant2'