Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-05-20
WEIGHING AN ELEPHANT.

WEIGHING AN ELEPHANT.
How . wtss Indian Prince Ovsrcame an
Apparently l-nsurmountaOls D~ifiouity.
Two hundred years ago there liveda
Prince of Maharattas in Hindoostan
whose name was Shahjcc. Princes
are numerous in India, but this par
ticular Prince was long remembered
on account of his benetlcence and
great wisdom, says Harper's Young
People. He seems to have been the
most learned Prince of the time, and
his advice and help were always
sought in critical matters. Many
stories are told OF his ingenious set.
Element of difficulties, and some of
them are certainly curious.
once a very high official i'm the
court of Prince Shahjee made Il vow
that If he succeeded i'm a certain en-.
tcrprise he would distribute to the
poor of his district ssthe weight of
his W elephant in silver" Elc-
plants were very highly priced by
these princes, and each kept the
largest and finest for his own use.
The officials vow, if hasty, was gen
erous, and perhaps the success of his
Undertaking was worth the price.
The undertaking succeeded, but
the official willing to keep his oath,
was met by an unexpected difficulty.
There was no possible way of finding
the elephants correct weight. No
scales in the country were constructed
OF sufficient power to weigh such
enormous beasts. Elephants were
not sold by the pound, and no need
had before arisen for scales to weigh
them. All the learned and clever
men of the court tried i'm vain to con-
struct a machine of sufficient power
to weigh the enormous beast. 1t did
seem probable that the poor of Hin
doostan would have to get along with
out that silver. 1t is possible that
the official had thought of this OBJ
lection when he made the VOW. In
dians are crafty, and this one might
nave been cunning enough to leave
himself a loopholc of escape to pre-
vent parting with his money.
But If any such notion had oc-
Cured to him he was doomed to dis
appointment in the matter. The
question was referred to Shahiee. as
all such %vcXatious questions were.
And it did not take him long to find
a very simple solution. That is al
ways the way with true genius, you
know. The solution it finds is so
simple that every one cries out in
wonder: =
tYrys
"Why, of course! Why didn't some-
body speak of that before?"
Shahjec commanded the e.cpbant,
to be conducted along a platform into
a fiat-bottomed boat which lay by the
watersfde. When the animal was
safely aboard he desired the attend
ants to mark upon the boats side the
exact height to which the water
reached when the elephant weighed
1T down. Then the elephant Was
taken out AID stones substituted I'M.
TIL enough were loaded INTO the boat
to bring it to the same watcrlinc as
When the elephant was the passen-
ger.
Then the stones were weighed. If
the scales could not hold all at once
part could be taken at a time, you
see, and so the elephants weight was
exactly asccrtained. 1t is safe to
conclude that the poor of Hindoostan
finally got the silver. A prince so
wise must also have been just.
Whether the official who paid the
money wasquite satisfied history does
not tell us, but we will hope for his
cllaritv's sake, he was, and as a full
grown elephant weighs several tons
the amount distributed among the
poor of the district must have been
very large.