Middletown transcript., 1884-03-07
IequateIy
ieilg
be original sto
rraTHJTNFtT nm,
gED LEpRoUs. ioS

VINO JOnn " Brlen WI ny, grea
Egypt, no-unless he has whitewashet
his old African elephant. YOUR
twenty-one, amt you 4? Well, dom
let any Of those Forepaugh guys clos
your eye on this subject. I'm telling
you straight when l say Barnum is th'
only Snowman that has white ele
phant. OF course he's white" con
tinued the agent, referring to tht
pachyderm-" that is, as white al
sacred elephants go. l don't say he';
as white as snow, but he's white in
patches. A sort Of calico elephant
50 to speak. You've seen a calico
boss ?"
Yes"
Well, just try and picture to your
self an elephant that looks like that. y
While the reporter was endeavOring
to draw mind-picture Of bay ele-
phant, decorated with pink-and-white
patches, the awful untruthfulness of
Mr.. Forepaugh's emissaries flashed
through the brain of Mr.. Barnum IS
agent, and, with frown on his face,
he inquired: "Now, you don't for a
moment believe that His Biscuits''-
by that remarkable title he meant Mr.
Forepaugh-"up Chestnut street could
buy a white elephant ? No, Of course
you kOn't know. That's just the
point. He knows you don't, and so he
sends guys around to swell your head.
When he heard that Mr.. Barnum
had a white elephant His Philadelphia
Biscuits says if | can't get one III
make 'em think | have. / tell you it
takes big money to get a sacred ele-
phant and what's more, there was
only one for sale, and as soon as Mr..
Barnum heard Of it he at once dis
patched twelve agents to Burmah.-
That was eight years ago. The agents
labored seven years and spent S137 1000,
but were unable to secure the prize.
Not wishing to return empty-handed
they in 1882 bought an elephant with
white feet, white trunk and a white
tail, but it was not sacred. The brute
was shipped to this country, but when
Mr.. Barnum learned that it was neither
pure white nor sacred he said to Mr..
Baily and Nc. Hutchinson, will
never consent to deceive the people of
my native country by palming off on
them a curiosity that is not genuine
That's the Governors style, you know
straight up and down as a centre
pole. !"
Here the agent broke his narrative
and holding up two fingers Of his right
hand said to the bar-keeper, " Whisky
sours. +" Turning to his companion he
said: "The Governor won't have a
drinking man with the show; and the
instant he hears that one Of his en-
ployes has taken a drink, off goes the
drinkers head. I'm taking big chances
when order sours in a public place
like this. " Then returning to the
matter he was most interested in he
said: Say, old man, don't you be-
lieve that anyone except MT. Barnum
will exhibit a white elephant in this
country next summer. Oh, yeS-that
spurious white elephant. Well, Hutch
and Baily, they said, What will we
do with it p and the Governor, he
said, Kill it and get one that is gen
uine or none at all. So it was pois-
Oned.
And another force Of agents went
to Burmah with 10000 worth of pres
ents Costing at least $4,000 for the
King and at last succeeded in securing
at Doang Dance the largest, whitest
and most intelligent sacred elephant in
the world, and, mind you, it is the only
one that ever left the country. 1t cost
5000, 900 and its golden bath tub and
feeding trough cost $4,000 more, and,
by the way, the trappings were only
leased at that. The priests that wait
upon the elephant are paid $1,000 a
month. Millions Of natives gathered
on the Salween to see the lord of white
elephants leave home. What do the
natives think of Mr.. Barnum, do you
say? Why, they worship him. Old
Swain, who was over there, tells me
they have images of the Governor in
all the temples now. There's the bill
of sale of our elephant published in
The Rdngoon Gazette,' y he added, un-
folding a dirty-looking little newspaper
and pointing out a column article on
Toung Taloang, the spotted probo-
scidian that Mr.. Barnum is now eXhib-
iting in England.
An hour or so later the reporter met
one Of the picturesque story-tellers en-
plOyed to do part of the MunchauSen |
business for Mr.. Forepaugh's aggre-
cation.
Look at that n he said, holding
up this cablegram
White elephant will reach Philadel-
phia in April. Expert naturalists say
he is the only pure Albino elephant in
the world. All others are leprous. "
That knocks Barnum higher than
a kite, = remarked the agent gleefully.
II tell you the Main Guy'-(Mr.
Forepaugh'S agents, in referring to
their employer, frequently give him
that unique title)-" has the only white
elephant that ever left the East.
What ? Call that measly little beast Of
Barnum's with few dirty gray patches
on his trunk, white ? Why it's bosh,
and when it comes down to the sacred
business we have all the best of it. On
the quiet, Ill tell you that that scaly
elephant Of Barnum's was never called
sacred by any one except circus agents,
while the Main Guys white monarch
lived for twenty years in temple and
was Worshiped by millions upon mil
ions Of people. When it became [
Known that he was to leave his native
and the natives bought single hairs
rom his body for rupee apiece. The
priests who have charge of him made
lbout $4,000 selling hairs. The little
elephant in London cost about SIC, 900,
While ours cost $3.50, 1000 before he left
lis temple and his diamond-studded
cost $3.50 Now, I'm Civ
ng you facts Then there was long
PAUSE.
"Oh, you saw one of those chumps
If the Barnum show, did you? Filled
7ou up, didn't he ? hope he told you !
;bout carting Professor Doremus, of
New York, down to Bridgeport to try ?
% turn an ordinary elephant white.
lie didn't, Ell? Yes, it's true. Old i
Doremus went down there and doc :
ored and painted and fooled with a
black elephant and just when the opera '
ors thought the beast was becoming ,
shade paler it died. Ask some Of those {
avs about it but say, don't you let {
EN- mil Won leo and convince Won that !