, 1882-04-08
g j jumbo"

The explosion Of friendship for "%JumbO,7
the great African elephant in the ZoolOgi-
cal Gardens, which marked the London
newspapers, Of Tuesday, (21 February
though a little grOtesque in form, was not
unprecedented, and not altogether unrea-
SOnable. LOndonerS have al instinct for
pets, and have not infrequently made pets
of single animals at the Geological. 1t
would be a good deal less dangerous for
a Tough to hurt a human being than to
hurt the big seal, who, with bis grave face
and kindly reflective eyes, is regarded by
half the visitors, and all children, as a
personal friend of unusual but extremely
~cleanly and interesting habits. Friend
ship for a hippopotamuS is, perhaps, not
possible, for whenever he gapes-and he
is a victim to chronic ennui-he opens his
Jaws cat twice." the second movement
revealing the whole throat, and any pr0ce-
dure SO unusual as that is, of course, fatal
to true friendship one could not be friend
~ with a man who could take off his head
and replace it-but still, there is an inter
est in the hippOpOtamus which was once
intense. 1t would nave been highly dan
gerOuS to throw pennies or halls into his
mouth, atthe time when Leech-we Think it
was Leech-was making all London laugh
with his picture of the huge brute as a lap
dog led by a string by a lady, who says,
"Come along, FidOw Why that picture
is SO irresistible is an intellectual puzzle,
but the man who can resist it stands con-
feSsed a Scotchman, and would declare
that he saw nothing comic in an owl, no
thing sinister in a raven when his head is
on one side, and he has that look of know
ing something about your future which
you ought to know but never will. The
permanent London appreciation of Mr..
Buckland rose to fever-heat when he Sc
cured that porpoise, and a good many
LondOnerS still are half-reSenttul OF Thack-
eray'S exquiSitely humorous dirge, and the
glee of the sturgeon at the demise OF the
"big, black, laundering, blubbery beast"
AS to the elephants, they are all friends OF
the public, if only because they can be fed,
and among them "JumbO" in particular IS
the friend, for a very natural reason. He
alone realizes the popular ideal. 1t is not
to be denied that interesting as every ele-
plant is and must ~be-being the only
beast whose nose is as long as an arm, ana
as efficient as a hand-mOst elephants,
and especially most Indian elephants, dis
appoint the public as much as the Atlantic
Ocean is said to have disappointed Mr..
Oscar Wilde. There is so little of
them. The public, deceived partly by
pictures, anu partly ny UHO NOAJ
remarkable disparities existing among
elephants, expects a mountain of flesh, and
on seeing an animal only half as large
again as a bull, feels as deceived as when
it goes to see a giant, and finds only a
meek and weakened life-guardsman, and
almost asks for its money back. It regards
the elephants as the sight of the Zoologi-
cal, and wants its children to be not only
amazed, but a little alarmed. at 'ud
weigh" remarked a meditative butcher of
one Indian beast, " but faint so big as 1
thought" "~Jumbo" is as big Belonging
to the big African species, and probably
sprung from an aristOcratic family With a
tendency to body, caught young and there
fore sufficiently fed-a wild elephant rare
~ gets quite enough to eat-he has devel-