The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-10-31
The Elephant,

| Elephants live, it is generally be-
| lieved, to the age of hundred or a
! hundred and twenty years, and average
six to seven feet in height. A very few
years since, one died at Benares which
was believed by local tradition to have
carried Warren Hastings. At seventy
years old the animal is quite in its
prime, and will perform long marches,
beat the iungles for whole day, and
receive unmoved the charge of the sOli-
tary buffalo, a greater test of staunch-
ness and confidence than the rush and
roar of tiger. The price of a docile
elephant, free from disease or vice, and
with many seasons of usefulness before
it, varies from ESQ or G70 to 9120.
Much higher sums are constantly given
| for those which have a reputation in the
sporting world, or which are conspi-
cuous for ther height or symmetry, or
are peculiarly fitted to play part in
| festivals or social pageantry. An ele-
phant of nine, ten, or eleven feet is rare,
| but is magnificent to behold. Each
animal has its name The female is
"the Pearl" the "beloved " one, or
the golden mouth" Recent history
or ancient traditions is called on to sup
ply appellations for the males, which
range from the familiar sounds of Hyder
Ali and Tippoo on the one hand, up to
the mythic heroes of the Indian epics on
the other; Bhima, who welded mace
like Athelstan the unready, and Arjuna,
who, like Ulysses, distanced all COM
petitors in the use of the bow. Herds
of these animals in a wild state are still
to be found in central and Southern
India, in the jungles of Assam, and also
in the forests which skirt the east IN
frontier of the Indian peninsula. It is
scarcely necessary to add that elephants
cannot be used for practical purposes
except in hot climates. But there are
few sights more in harmony with an
eastern landscape than a line of some
fifteen or twenty elephants waiting, by
the side of some well-known cover, for
the signal to commence operations, or
than the solitary animal which may be
seen towards evening in the months of
January or February, slowly vending
its way over an enormous plain to a clus-
ter of white tents in which a couple of
English officials are recording the re-
suits of a survey OF the country, or have
been dealing out useful advice and sum-
mary justice to whole village popula-
tion.-SGt1trClGy ReUjeaO.
The question is beginning to- be a
serious one, whether there is any way
in which it can be ascertained if the
cashier of a bank is robbing it or not.
In the last defalcation, that of cashier
Pierce, of the Merchants national, at
Lowell, the abstraction of funds is a
matter of years. One of the directors
is reported to have rubbed his eyes
open, and observed that the stealing be-
gan while the institution was a state
bank, and has been going on ever since.
A mere accident led to the exposure.
How long these great defalcations might
continue if it were not for these occa-
sional accidents it is impossible to say.
It is a characteristic of unintelligent or
ganisms to be slow to recognize fatal
injuries A horse will run around the
bull-ring at good pace after his bowels
have been torn out, simply because he
does not known how badly he is hurt.
Shoot little bullet into man and he
drops on the spot. If there were any
alert principle of sentiment life in a
financial institution it would seem that
cashier could not steal a half or
quarter million without the knowledge
of any other member of the organiza-
tion.-Ne1D York ITibune.
"A few days since, five geese, owned
by man living at Mormon island, CAL,
died from an unknown disease and, on
examining the gizzard of one, grain gold
sufficient to make a five-dollar piece
was found. The remaining four panned
out each almost the same amount of the