Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-04-27
So in Advance
Whole Number 1925,

blanee to the animal was mounted
on high post before the door Of
the hotel, and painted over the front
of the building 1 read, in enormous
letters, elephant Hotel"
1t was time to breathe my horse,
and the ride had given me an appe-
tite for anything l might find with
in, even if it should prove to be an
elephant steak. The landlord OBJ
served that ''the women-fOlks were
not at home, but he guessed he could
find something" He accordingly
placed a cold turkey and bottle of
London porter on the table, and thus
proved that his guess was very cor
rect. As he sat down by my side, I
asked him the meaning of this ele-
phantine display.
"Why," he answered, ''Hackaliah
Bayley built this house himself!"
'Hackaliah Bayleyl Who was
hep"
'Who was Hackaliah Bayley!
Don't you know? He was the man
who imported the first elephant into
these United States-old Bet; of
course you have heard of old Bet?'
'NO, l have not"
"What, never heard of old Bet!
Well, Sir, you are pretty well along
in life. Where have you been all
your days?"
told him l had not spent them
all in Westchester County.
81 should rather think not" re-
piled the landlord, cor else you'd
have heard of Hackaliah Bayley and
old Bet. Right here from this very
spot, he started the first show in this
country. Right round here is where
they breed and winter wild animals
to this day. Folks round here have
grown rich out of the show business.
There's men in this town that have
been to Asia and Africa to get ami
mails; and Bayley's big circus (he's
old Haekaliah's sony has grown ND
out from the small beginning when
Hackaliah imported old Bet, and
that wasn't more than fifty or sixty
years ago. Yes Sir, Haekaliah be-
gan on that one she-elephant. He
and boy were all the company.
They travelled nights and showed
daytimes. Old Bet she knew Just
how much every bridge in the coun-
try would bear before she put her
foot on it. Bimeby they got cage
of monkeys and carted them along,
and gradually it got up to bears,
lions, tigers, camels, boa-constrie-
tors, alligators, Tom Thumb, hippo
pOtamuses, and the fat woman-in
fact to where it is now. Yes, Sir;
P. T. Barnum got the first rudi-
ments of his education from Hacka-
liah Bayley right here in Somers-
town. Elephants and milk have
made this town. In fact, We all
live on elephants and milk"
elephants and milk! Good gra-
cious," l exclaimed, "what a diet!''
'Lord, Sir" retorted my landlord,
"did you think 1 meant that we
crumbled elephants into milk and
ate 'em? No; l mean to say that the
elephant business and the milk busi-
ness are what have built up this
place Pve told you what elephants
have done for us, and now Pll tell
YOU about milk. There's farmers
round here owning a hundred COWS
apiece. From the little depot of
Purdy's you'll pass a mile beyond
this we send four thousand gallons
of milk every day to New York;
and it starts from here pure, let me
tell you, for we are honest, if we
were brought up in the show busi-
ness. Then right in our neigkbOr-
hood are two condensed-milk factor
les, where they use as much more.
There's eight thousand gallons. The
farmers get sixteen cents for it on
the spot. So you see there is a reve-
nue. of twelve hundred and eighty
dollars a day to this district. Now
you've been telling me of the West,
how they raise forty bushels of
wheat to the acre, and all that.
Well, what does it amount to by the
time they get their returns, paying
all out in railroad freight? You ride
along this afternoon, and if you
come back this way, tell me if the
houses and fxings and things, espe-
cially the boys, and more particular
ly the gals, look any better in them
fever-and-ague digging than they do
here, if we do live on elephants and
milk" Harper's Magazine.