The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-06-14
ELEPHANTS AND MILK.
Whcte the First American Menngerie was
Organized.


Organized.
In the town of Somers, not many miles
lack i'll the country from Peekskill, N.
Y, is hotel that has always had local
reputation from it's title as the "Ele
phant Hotel" Mr. John Goldman tells
very pleasantly the story of this hotel,
as he learned it while on horseback
trip through that section, some years
ago. He says:
A lively gallop soon brought me
twelve miles on my way enstorly, over
the hills, to the little village of Somcrs-
town. Like great castle ON the Rhine
with its two or three adjacent appurtcn-
nnces, largo brick hotel looms up
among the few small houses in its neigh
borhood. This seemed disproportionnte,
but my curiosity was particularly Mt
tracted by an immense statue of an ele-
phant, nearly us large as life-I mean
tho life-size of small elephant, of
course. This remarkable resemblance
to the animal was mounted on a high
post before the door of the hotel, and
painted over the front of the building L
read, in enormous letters Elephant
Hotel"
1t was time to breathe my horse, and
the ride had given me an appetite for
anything L might find within, even if it
should prove to be an elephant steak. The
landlord observed that "the women folks
were not at home, but he guessed he
could find something" He accordingly
placed cold turkey and bottle of Lon
don porter on the table, and thus proved
that his guess was very correct. AS he
sat down by my side asked him the
meaning of all his elephantine display.
"Why," he answered, Hackaliah
Bayley built this house himself %
"Hacllaliah Bayley Who was he ?"
"Who was Hackaliah Bayley Don't
you know? He was the man who i'm
ported 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 ?"
I told him I had not spent them all in
Westchcster county.
81 should rather think not, replied
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 the 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 bust
ness. There's men in this town that
have been to Asia and Africa to get ami
mails. Hackaliah imported old Bet, and
that wasn't more than fifty or sixty years
ago. Yes, sir, Hackaliah began on the
one she-elephant. He and Il boy were
all the company. They travelled nights
and showed daytimes. Old Bet she knew
low much every bridge in the country
would bear before she put her foot upon
it. Bimeby they got a cage Of monkeys
and carted them along, and gradually it
got up to bears, lions, tigers, camels,
boa constructors, alligators, Tom Thumb,
hippopotamuses and the fat woman-in
fact, to where it is now. Yes, sir, p. II.
Barnum got the first rudiments of his
education from Hackaliah Bayley right
here in Semerstown. Elephants and
milk have made this town. In fact, we
all live on elephants and milk.
Elephants and milk Good gra-
ciOus - exclaimed what diet -
"Sir," retorted the landlord, "did you
think l meant that we crumbled ele-
plants into milk and ate 'em? No; |
mean to say that the elephant business
and the milk business are what have
built up this place. I've told you what
elephants have done for us, and now I'll
tell you what milk has done. 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 are brought up in the
show business. Then right in our neigh
borhood are two condensed milk fac
tories, where they use as much more
There's eight thousand gallons. The
farmers get six cents quart on the spot.
So you see there is revenue of twelve
hundred and eighty dollars day to this
district Now you've been telling me
about the West, how they raise forty
bushels of wheat to the acre, and all
that Well, what does it amount to by
the time you get your 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, especially the boys,
and more particularly the gals, look any
better in them diggings than they do
here, if we do live on elephants and
milk"