The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-25
The "White Elephant Not White.

A low wall rising 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 a dozen sentries.
Signor AnGreino whispered that this
was the white elephants palace At
last! Here | was, then, on the very
threshold of an editice containing one
of the most famous animals in the world
a beast so remarkable that sober-sided
occidertals 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 a 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 Signor 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 himP By
no means. The great sacred white ele-
plant was a slaty-covered, wicked-look
ing brute, without a 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 tlesh-colored
provisioning 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 / 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 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 color, and | 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 it would be wise
to affect an admiration for the brute,
because already there were gathered at
the doorway number of sullen-looking
Burmese. [ walked round and round
"his Majesty pretending to be aston
ished, which l was AS for him he kept
following me with his piercing little
gray eyes and penduluming his trunk in
anything but an amiable fashion. was
to him evidently as much of curiosity
as he was to me, only he would have
liked to smash up the curiosity. asked
Signor Andreino to say to the pumice-
stoning attendant, in ocular 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
says it is!' That settled it. The King
said the white elephant was white and
nobody else had word to say. If the
King had said it was pea-green, sky
blue or magenta it would have been all
the same.-P hiLddelphid Times.