The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-07-02
A Curious story About Camels.

A Curious Story About Camels.
In India" said gentleman who
recently returned to this country after
living many years in the East. s.the
camel is used fully as much as the ele.
plant as beast Of burden. He il not
SO powerful as the elephant. but he can
carry an enormous load on his hack
He does not do SO willingly, however,
ana Is oy no means the patient, docile
servant that the elephant soon becomes
under proper training. When first
went 10 India as a young man was
connected with mercantile firm in the
northwest provinces, and while there I
nad abundant opportunity of studying
the camel, Tor means of carriage in that
part OF the country in those DAYS was
confined to elephants, camels, bull
locks and men. Horses were not
used as beasts of burden. Every day
camels and elephants were driven up to
our Office door and loaded With wine
and beer cases for far away customers.
The elephant would 90 clumsily down
on his great knees and allow himself to
be loaded without an indication of dis
content. I have no doubt that he would
have permitted himself to be loaded
until he was crushed to the earth be-
meath the weight of his load had his
driver seen fit to pile on the boxes.
But the camel receiving their burdens
was spectacle never to be forgotten.
They never varied in their behavior.
and every one that I ever saw loaded
and have seen thousands acted pre-
clselv in the same manner.
''The camel, when he is not eating or
drinking or being loaded, is invariably
chewing the cud. His long, crooked
jaw is in perpetual motion, and when
he is told to lie down to receive his bur-
den he does SO without varying this in
cessant masticatory process. He awk-
wardly bends his fore knees, drags his
hind legs under him, and comes to the
ground with a curious kind of flop. All
this time his long, melancholy face
shows not the slightest Indication that
he knows what he is lying down for:
and this unmistakable hypocrisy,
think, stamps the camel as an animal
of very high order of intellect. But
in few seconds the expression on the
cameps face undergoes a striking al
iteration. As he sees the driver ap-
preaching him with box on his shoul- |
der he seems at last to understand the
indignity and torture to which he is
about to be submitted, and the aston
lshment, virtuous indignation, and dis
may on the ill-used animals counte-
nance ought certainly to make some
on the stony heart of the
driver. They never have the slightest |
effect. The man binds the first box on
the wretched animals back, and goes
away to get another. Then the camel,
wisely abandoning his efforts to move
man to compassion. points his hairy
nose upward, and bowls his wrongs to
the skies.
"Never in circus, pantomime or
show have seen anything half so
ludicrous as the camers appearance at
that moment. His upper lip is curled
back from the teeth, his under, lip
doubles up and drops down as though
he had no further use for it, his great
mouth opens so wide that one can see
about half yard down his throat, and
out of the cavern thus revealed come a
series of the most astonishing bowls
that ever startled the air-howls of such
abject misery that it is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that the cancels
heart is breaking; and this impression
is strengthened by the tears that flow
down the wailing animals
cheeks and drip from the end
Of his nose. In the utterance Of each
note of woe the camel seems to be ex-
erting the utmost power of his lungs,
but he is all the time holding large
force in reserve, and as the driver adds
box after box to the pile on his back, a
howl more resonant and heart-rending
han the last testifies to each addition to
he creatures misery; and never, ex-
,ept when he is absolutely engaged in
his agonies into space, are
,he great watery eyes of the camel re-
moved from the person of his perse-
,utor; they follow him wherever he
goes, and express through their tears
contempt, indignation, establishment
md dismay. 1 think it must have been
his extraordinary habit on the part of
he ship of the desert that gave rise
% the well known expression: It's the
asst straw that breaks the camers back
But the Eastern driver has no fear of
my such catastrophe, and piles up the
Dad until it reaches almost the proper
ions of an elephants burden. Then.
he cases being bound fast with ropes,
he camel is told to rise. and the ami
nal, feeling that he has conscientiously
lone his whole duty by entering his
protest at every stage of the work.
accepts the unavoidable re-
ult, stops his tears, suppresses his
;ries, gets up on his feet, and. resum-