San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-06-06
TICKS OF SHOWMEN.
How the White Elephants of Forepaugh
and Barnum Were Secured.

How the White Elephants of F"repaugh
and Barnum Were secured.
Old showmen who travelled with the late
Adam FUrcpau,h or were intimately &C
quainted with HIM for many years have
countless stories TO tell about tive veteran
circus man and his long career under the
canvas Perhaps one of the most interesting
tales is that which gives the real history OF
the famous white elephant, which Is now
historic animal, but whose artificial color has
long been well known to those who were at
tached to the Forepaugh show. An old cir
Gus man, who was in Adam Forepaugh's en-
ploy for many successive seasons, tells the
story.
"Wheu BarrUm announced that be had
procured sacred white elephant Adam
Forepaugh made up his mind That he must
have one at once. Not long afterward he
proclaimed that he had secured IA genuine
white elephant from Siam with extreme diff
fculty and at a cost of $4,000. This so called
sacred white elephant was merely a small
elephant worth about s., 800 that had been
painted with a preparation devised by man
that used To worl; for Barnum at Bridgeport,
Conn. OF course, the elephant was not pure
white, but a dull gray, and in a manner that
can hardly be accounted for, even eminent
scientific men who examined the animal were
deceived into the belief that the cUlJr was
really natural, notwithstanding the eXpendl-
ture of an immense sum of money by Bar
NUNS people III their endeavOrs TO prove the
elephant bogus The elephant was tc&ched
off with the preparation about every other
day, and on Sunday 1t was fixed up for the
coming week On Monday morning the ele-
phant always appeared surprisingly bright,
but along toward the end of the week the
| color became 80 dingy that visitors often
asked which WAS the white elephant.
In l>4, when Forepaugh had his white
| elephant in his show an embassy from Siam
visited the country for n tour through the
states. The SiameSe and the slow CHANGED
| to be in Chicago at the same time, and Fore
paugh's agent saw a chance to work the for
! egners fer a big card. The scheme was to
| get the Samcse visitors To attend the show,
| take look at the sacred SiameSe white ele-
plant and thereby get a big advertisement
| out of it. After four days of hard work the
agent succeeded in getting the embassy to
| visit the show They passed the white ele-
| plant without comment, watched part of the
| perfo nance and then went out, pauSing in
the menagcrle tent to take another look at
| the elephants. Adam Forepaugh, in his shirt
| sleeves, stool at the gate, and, seeing the
Siamese gentlemen, he rushed to them and
| gave the Samese prince, who led the party,
a rousing slap on the back and said There,
now, prince amt that the kind Of elephants
| you have i'll your c0untryr The foreigners,
| none of whom understood English except the
| Interpreter, looked at Mr. Forepaugh in
| amazement at his familiarity, and then
| quickly departed. The agents, who had
worked 50 hard to get the SiameSe visitors
into the show, nearly tainted at what Mr..
| Forrpaugh did.
The white elephant appeared on the bills
and in the show until interest in the animal
| began to flag and then it was suddenly an.
| nOunCed that the sacred creature had died,
| having been unable to stand the climate. Mr..
| Forepaugh fixed his loss at $4,000 and an
admiring public gave him its sympathy. The
| truth of the matter was that the elephant
was washed off and turned in with the herd.
| 1t has been with the show ever since being
| billed of late years as John L. Sullivan, and
| doing boxing act in the ring The once
| famous white elephant is now in the winter
| quarters at Front street and Lehigh avenue.
| BarnumS white elephant was no more gen.
uine than this one. They merely sandpapered
off the rough outside hide until it began to
| show pink. '-Philadelphia Record.