The Placer herald., 1856-01-12
Seeing the Elephant.

The origin of this now common and en-
pressive phrase is thus described in one of
our exchanges:
"Some years since at one of the Philadel
phia theaters, pageant was IN rehersal IN
which it was necessary to have an elephant.
No elephant was to be had. The wild beasts
we're all travelling and the property man,
stace 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 varnish. Thus far the matter was
all well, but as vet, they had found no means
TO make the said combination travel. Here
again, the genius of the manager, stage di-
rector and property man stuck out and two
Of the supes' were duly installed as legs
Ned c., one of the true and genuine
'bhoys, held the responsible station Of fore
lrgs, and for several nights he played that
heavy part to the entire satisfaction 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 without
'wetting his WHISTLE SO he set his wits to
work to find way to carry wee drop
with him. The eyes Of the elephant being
made of two porter bottles with the necks
in Ned conceived the brilliant idea of filling
them with good stuff This he fully carried
out, and elated with his success, willingly
undertook to play the .tore-legs again
Night came; the theater was crowded with
the depizens Of the Quaker City, the music
PLAYED its sweetest strains, the whistle sound
ed, the curtain rose, and the play began.
Ned and the hind-leqs 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 was marched round
and round the stage. The .tore-lcgs got dry
and withdrew one Of the corks, treated the
hind-legs, and drank the health Of the audi
ence in q bumper of genuine elephant eye
whisky, brand, by the way, till then un-
known On went the play--on went Ned
drinking The concluding march was to be
made-the signal was given, and the fore
legs staggered upon the stage The con
ductor pulled the ear Of the elephant to the
right--the tore-legs staggered to the left
the foot-lights obstructed his wav-he raised
his feet and stepped plump into the orches
ira! Down went tore-legs on the leaders
iiddle-over of course turned the elephant
sending the Prince, closely followed by the
hind-legs into the middle of the pit. The
manager stood horror struck-the Prince and
hind-lcgs lay contoundcd-th boxes in con-
vusions, the actors choking with laughter.
And poor Ned casting one look, a strange
blending of drunkenness, grief and laughter,
at the scene, fled 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-pant 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-leys, but everybody holding their sides,
music, actors, gallery and boxes rushed from
the theatre, shricking between every breath,
Hare vou seen the elephantN