, 1880-08-29
MASTOD0N Or ELEPHANTF

MAsTODoN OR ELEPHANT7
Is the Fowler street mastodon mastodon,
or is he an elephant9 This is the problem
which now confronts the savants of the
Academy of Sciences. Humiliating as it
may be, Chicago looks to them to do their
duty in the premises, and if the mastodon Is
not 4 ulastodon, but an elephant pure and
simple, she will expect them to come up like
men and acknowledge 1t, and not palm off All
! ordinary beast, which is standard article In
the market, for the antediluvian monster
which cannot be put upon the market, as
there is now 10 known process for its manu-
facturc.
| In deciding this question, the Academy of
Sciences must take into consideration the
statement of the old citizen, whose yeracity
must be accepted until it is satisfactorily
shown he cannot be believed, that he re-
members thirty years ago circus passed
along Fowler street, and that the elephant
got nllred, and was left there to perish by the
proprietors, who were not so lnhuInan as
| might at first seem. As circus companies do
not carry lifc-saying apparatus, and as the
| elephant, by reason of his great weight and
| the Unusual force Of his gravity, would rap
| idly descend through the soft. unctuous, and
| treacherous subsoiI to the liquid depths be-
| low, it stands to reason that he could not
have been saved, and that, however painful
| the sight may have been to the camel and the
giraffe, the giant and the skeleton, the queen
| Of the arena and tho peerless bare
| backed beauty Of the ring, the lem
| onade pcddler and the clown, and all
! the other friends Of the deceased,
rs they saw him wave plaintlve but de-
spairing farewell with his rapidly disappear
Ing trunk, which fate had checked for the
end Of his underground route, they were
absolutely powerless to save him. Had it
been tile small monkey, the human cannon
ball, or even tile sacred bull Of the Ganges,
something might have been done, but the UNI
fortunate wretch who should have tried to
stay the descent of that prodigious mass Of
flesh would inevitably have gone down u,.-
derneath the elephant, and thus onr acade-
my Of savants would have been more than
ever distracted with the discovery that man
existed even before the mastodon, and irrey-
crent scientists world at once have over
thrown the whole Mosaic narrative Of the
Creation.
It will be useless for the cavilers to say
that the date assigned BY the old citizen is
too remote for clrcuses. Thirty years ago is
only 1850. In that year Chicago had the
opera, and before that time Charlotte Cnsll-
man, Edwin Forrest, the elder Jefferson, and
other great actors had been here. Innumer-
able. concerts had been given, and church
choirs were sQuabbling, and there had been
many exhibitions Of line arts. Now, in the
development Of civilization it is a uniyer-
sally conceded fact that the circus is the
pioneer. It always precedes the theatre, the
opera, and tho art displays, and may be
called the foundation principle Of popular
esthetics which kindlcs the first aspiration for
amusementin tloyouthful breast, incitcscven
the smallest impecunious boy to the fragrant
crime Of crawling Under the canvas at op-
perfume moments aud heraids the advent of
higher forms of diversion. Having estab-
lished this fnct, we now clinch it with the
declaration that the files Of THE CHICAGO
TRIBUNE for 1850 show thata circus came here
that year all the way from La Sale via canal,
and that the citizens were very much distressed
because the show was delayed en- route BY
a break in the canal. There having been
circus here that year, it follows, as night fol-
because there never was circus from the
time that Noah started on Ills tour down
to the own and only greatest on earth that
did not have I'M elephant. 4 circus without
IN elephant would be delusion that would
not be tolerated in any community, least Of
all in a community like Chicago, where cir
cuses have always found hospitable wei
comeand remuncrative patronage.
We have now, as we think, satisfactorily
demonstrated that there was circus here |
thirty years ago, with an elephant Was he
mlrcd? If we can show ttnt he could have
been mired, then there is nothing abrupt in
the decision that he. must have been
mired. Even later than 1850, and in |
the memory of the present writer, I
there were numerous localities in Chi |
cago, even in its thickly settled portions, |
where there was ITO bottom. It was the |
habit Of the City Government at that time,
which had more pride in its streets than the |
present Administration, to warn strangers of /
their perilous condition by planting signs I
with the legend, "No bottom here" It was
not necessary 10 notify citizens. Even Lisle
Smith, Dr.. Egan, Judge Meeker, or Bob |
blackwell, coming home from registering
times at the fremont OH the darkest nights, |
could steer clear of them, but newcomers |
from the East were often caught III them be-
lore these signs were placed, and it WAS no
uncommon thing for people who were
out early in the morning to find
tile surface of street dotted with strangers,
some up to their knees, some TIP to their
waists, some up to their necks, and in some
cases only their hats visible, but NIL stuck as
ln,movably as if they were in a huge wise.
Those who tried to cross in wagons usually
went out OF sight in the twinkling OF an eye,
and 10 seRreh,Was made tor them, but those