The Portland daily press., 1883-01-25
A London Girl in New York

lCor. London Telegraph
Otherwise our voyage was an uneventful one
and in due course we find ourselves in the
United States, where Jumbo is. "And is Jum-
DO really here2" asked little voice at my side,
as we strolled by the Seventh-avenue entrance
into the Central Park. "Oh, yes,a she con-
tinued, looking around her with rapturous
gladness, 81 kro1o that this is where Jumbo
isP' But alas for the little ones hopes! The
august pachyderm does not reside in Central
Park. 1t is true that the asphalt pathway
slopiDg down to the tunnel looks yery much
like one of the entrances to the "Zoo," and
that with sufficient geographical confusion as
to continents one might easily here mistake
the one for the other. But / said, mo, Jumbo
is not here" Mountains, however, will not
move a child's faith. "Isn't this America?''
she asked. eyes," was my reply, 'it is.
"Well, them" said the small one, with an in
describable triumph, 81 kr,oo that he is here"
And she clapped her hands together-f'and,
perhaps, Alice is here, tool / don't think
Jumbo would leave Alice behind, do your"
But the whole sadness OF the truth gradually
grew upon the great elephants wee adnlirer,
and at last she confessed it, 81 'spect," she
said, in sorrowful tones, Jumbo must be in
some other America"
But not even y child could long mistake
Central Park on Sunday for any part of Lon
don. For there is no large choice of negroes
on English promenades, Lor, on Sundays, are
swings and merry-go-rounds patroniZed by
English pleasure-seekers in the public parks.
But here, on a Sunday, the crowd is a mixture
of Epping Forest on bank holiday aud New
Mexico; and the manners AID colors of the
crowd partake of both. Jumbo's admirer was
filled with glee at the spectacle of so many
highly -colored men. Her civilized instincts
led her to expect entertainment of comic
melodies. She was anxious to secure a seat at
once. But when she found that they were Sc
riously intended for ordinary men and women,
all interest in the situation leaked out rapidly,
and she proceeded to hazard explanations of
the apparently strange waste of negroes.
"Perhaps," she said, finally, sit is too early
for them to sing yet, and this satisfied her.
Yet still another disappointment was in store
for her, for, thinking of st. James's Hall, her
mind must have travelled along the street to
Piccadilly Hall. For she suddenly exclaimed,
~ don't see any midgets:" "Midgetsl' said,
in establishment, "why, did you expect to see
midgets?" Didn't you tell me. was the an
swer 'that those mdgets we saw that day
came from America? But perhaps" she add
ed, in a saddeDed soliloquy, 'they came from
the other America, where Jumbo isl" And
then we got up to go. Her afternoon had been
one of disappoIntments. No Jumbo, no mid
gets, and no one to make the negroes sing and
bang their heads with the cymbals. She was
quite ready to go.
All in vain I drew her attention to the trot-
ting horses spinning along the drives, VIII
their ewe-necks stretched out IS II they were
choking, and their long ragged tails trailing
along behind them. She wouldn't laugh. She
looked at them loftily and at the skeleton con-
veyances they dragged, and asked to be taken
where the carriages were" All in vain, too
ol.a ha- dF,air of f1o fuI
grades of turf stretching away
among the Autumn.tinted trees. Her only
comment was, "But don't see any sheep"
The little EugliHh mind was back at