American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-12-05
Dirge of the Elephant.

The elephant, like the whale, is diving
out. In lndia he Is becoming almost rs
fare as is the red deer in England. The
hunters have driven him further and
further inland. Unless something be
done to protect him he will before long
hec"me, upon the main continent at any
rate, altogether extinct, and Sahib will
have to import his elephants from Bur
nah and Ceylon, much as we do in En-
gland import our horses from Ireland and
our foxes from any country that will
send them to us in sufficient number and
of sufficient size and strength. In
Africa, it is true, the evil is not yet past
remedy. over the vast tablelands of
that unknown continent the elephant
still roves i'll countless droves and still
holds in undisputed possession vast tracts
to which rum and glass beads, cast-iron
muskets and clay pipes, printed calico
and coarse gunpowder have never yet
found their way. The respite. however,
will probably be but brief. Almost daily
caravans start from the Zanzibar coast
to the interior, carrying with them all that
the native heart needs to make il glad
and willing to take payment in ivory for
all they have to offer. For ten or dozen
large tusks the African chief can dress
his wives out in beads and striped calico,
furnish himself and his ministers with
rum and gunpowder, and can SO afford
To wait patiently until next years hunt
ing season commences. The danger
which the chase involves is exaggerated
The elephant is dangerous beast to
meet face to face; but he is easily cir
cumvented by craft. He can be shot
with poisoned arrows; he can be fright
ened by midnight fires and driven into
pitfalls; or, if the hunter have the
requisite nerve and courage, he can be
followed and hamstrung. And SO the
butchery goes on. Year by year Ian
zibar sends inland larger number
of bales, and year by year a larger num-
Der of tusks is carried down to the coast
We may regret the idle waste, but we are
powerless to stop it. Nor is it, after all
easy to convince native chief that it is
his duty to allow the elephant to multi
ply in peace. We, here in England, are
burning up our coal and leaving posteri
ty to take care of itself and pay its own
national deut, and we can hardly expect
the woolly headed African to displav~s
virtue of which We ourselves are igno
rant. What is it to him if in century
or so the elephant be altogether extinct
so long as in the interval he is able tC
drink his rum and to dress out his ebony
charmer in gaudy yellow and red?
But, after all, rapidly extinct as tho
great brute is becoming, it is yet certain
that we shall have supplied his place long
before we begin to feel his loss. The
tramway will supplant the elephant in
India as surely rs the train has supplant
ed the stage-coach in England, and
science will discover some material fully
as elastic as ivory and equally capable Of
doing service in the shape of n billiard
ball-the one and only article of modern
luxury for which at present ivory is alb
solutely Indispensable. Indeed, it is moi
improbable that, long before the elephant
is finally extinct, science may have
taught US to so fuse glass as to impart to
it all the elasticity of ivory-exactly a.
it has already taught us to supply the
place of the bamboo with cast-iron pill
lars and pipes, and that of the sponge
with fibrous india rubber.-London Tee
Qrdph.