The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-08-24
The sswhite Elephant'' Not White.

A low wallrising behind the Palace
of Justice inclosed the royal gardens
and the palace occupied by the King.
We moved several hundred yards away
to the left, followed by several curious
Burmese soldiers and palace officials,
and stopped in front of huge teak
Building, at the large open doorway of
which paced half dozen sentries.
Signor Andreino whispered that this
was the white elephants palace. AT
threshold of an edifice containing one
of the most famous animals in the world
"a beast soremarkable that sober-sided
occidentals did not credit its existence.
Andreino spoke to the captain of the
guard, tipped him slyly some buck
sheesh, and he motioned us in silence
to enter. now found myself in large
and lofty hall. The roof was deliberately
carved teak and the floor consisted OF
hard-pressed earth. On the walls were
hung green, yellow, white and blue
standards. golden shields and gigantic
basins and vessels of a thousand fantas-
tic shapes. Here and there upon the
| floor gold and silver vessels were strewn
in careless profusion. There stands
the lord and owner of all this magnifi-
cence," said Siguor Andreino, as he
pointed to the center of the floor. The
white elephant There he stood, chained
heavily to stakes planted in the ground.
Was he all my fancy painted him? By
no means. The great sacred white ele-
plant was a slaty-covered, wicked-look-
ing brute, without patch of that
snowy whiteness which, had associated
with him as much as the Doe Of Ryl-
stone. His trunk, with which he was
viciously tossing bundles of hay over
his back, was notified with flesh-cOlored
eprous-looking spots; his eyes were
small, slaty-gray and ablaZe with sup
pressed fire, his ears were notified in
| the same curious way as his trunk. and
his body, as l have said, was dark
| slaty-gray. A Burmese, stripped to the
waist, was vigorously rubbing the great
brute's hide with something that looked
| like a brick. Could it be possible? He
was actually pumice-stoning his sacred
majesty! l have no doubt whatever
that constant pumice-stoning had pro-
duced the slaty cclor, and l should not
wonder if the whole hide by this time is
not much thicker than dime.
Turning to the Italian / expressed my
disappointment at not seeing genuine
white elephant, as had expected, and
he counseled me that il would be wise
to affect an admiration for the brute,
because already there were gathered at
the doorway number of sullen-l blocking
Burmese. L walked round and round
..his Majesty" pretending to be aston
| ished, which | was. As for him he kept
following me with his piercing little
gray eyes and penduluming his trunk il
ANYTHING but an amiable fashion. | was
to him evidently as much of a curiosity
as he was to me, only he would have
liked to smash up the curiosity. Iasked
Signor AndreinO to say to the pumice-
stoning attendant, in jocular way, OF
course, that the sacred beast was not
white after all. Suspending his pumice-
stoning for an instant and drawing him.
self up to his full height, the Burmese
replied with great dignity: 1.-The King
saws it isr' That settled it. The King
said the white elephant was white and
nobody else had a word to say. If the
King had said it was pea-green, sky
blue or magenta it would have been all
the same-P Philadelphia Times.