The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-10-26
EACH COSTS A HUMAN LIFE.
No wonder Billiard Balls Bring Good
Price.


the world is said to have cost the life
of human being. Most of this heavy
expense has been paid in the juugles
of central Africa, where man does
not count for half as much as bumped
OK or a trained ape. For nature has
built an eifectual barrier about her
cultivators of billiard balls-the ele-
phants-and he who would penetrate
il must take his life in his hands,
In the first place she has provided an
atmosphere of great heat, reeking hall
the year with moisture in which Turk
the germs of hundred unnamed
diseases and heat for two sea-
sons, with sudden storms accompanied
by heavy rains. Then there is the
barrier of rank and tangled vegeta-
ton through which no roads but those
of the Jungle folk have yet pierced.
The huge trees conceal fierce wild
animals, poisonous snakes and insects
whose stings mean death at the end of
days of suffering. impossible morass-
es, lakes, broad rivers and mountain
ranges are also numerous, and yet
more dangerous are the jealous say
ages who have learned enough of civil
ization to distrust il and who know
that man never protests against rob-
berry after he is dead.
SO the elephant is given a chance to
grow little before the harvesters OF
the ivory crop can reach him. When
he has tru,npeted for few score
years and his tuslSs have made him a
power in the herd, some native hunter
spies him as he thrashes through the
Jungle or wades in a morass. Then q
great number OF the brascst warriors
gather and built huge Enclosure of
vines, into which the elephant one day
walks. From the surrounding trees
come shower of arrows and perhaps
bullet or two from an ancient gun
obtained at a hundred times its yalne
from some wandering trader. The ele-
phant charges about trumpeting. but
on every side the barrier holds him in.
At last he falls, overcome by numbers.
Then his great tusks are packed away
and row of naked natives carry them
for days through the jungle until they
are placed in the kings treasury as
part of the wealth as we'll as the cur
rency of a nation.
Sometimes the elephant is killed by
means of huge beam shod on its I'M
der side with q stone or iron knife
which is SO arranged as to fall when
the elephant steps under it.
Some tribes have enriched them
selves by finds of dead ivory" or the
tusls from elephants which have per-
ished in years gone by. The smaller
pieces are frequently used for uproot-
ing stones, digging in the earth, and
for various implements of warfare.
After time traders from England
and from other countries appear and
the tusks are bartered for bright moth
ings = old-fashioned and shop-worn
fabrics, food, whisky and firearms.
Then there is another long period oil
transporting the precious ivory on the
backs OF natives, with the constant
danger of attack from hostile tribes
and the treachery of friendly ones. Al
last it is aboard ship, and after weeks
on the sea it arrives at the great ports
where it is sold TO carvers and manu-
facturers
The best ivory comes from Africa.
Some of the tusks are eight to ten feet
long and often weigh one hundred and
seventy pounds. The Indian elephants
tusks are much shorter and of less
weight, and the great demand has re-
duced the supply to an extent that il
Is now rare to find large tusk. Indian
ivory is not so good in quality as that
f~s <.f t,o -
in Russia and in other parts Of Europe
is found in northern Russia and Siberia
In the remains of prehistoric nam
moths Where the skeletons have al
ways been frozen in the earth TIL,
ivory is as good as the ordinary Indiar
product, but much of it has been in
jured by exposure to the weather
Tusks have been found which wer,
more than twelve feet long and weighed
upward of two hundred pounds.
The value of ivory rests mainly il
it's toughness, its elasticity, and it
quality of taking a high polish. 1t j
filled with millions of minute holes
which give 1t an elasticity which M
solid object could ever have. In effec
ivory is the same substance as the den
tine of the teeth, and it is unlike bon
in having no channels for the passag
of blood. The teeth or tusks of tn
the narwhal, sperm whale, walrus an,
hippopotamus are also used as ivory
but the quality is usually poor.
Great skill is required in buying
tusks, for the external appearance j
often most deceptive. The inside ma.
be full of Assesses and cracks, an,
sometimes the core is filed with piece
of stones and chunks OF iron by tn
tricky natives and no less tricky deal
ers.-Chicago Record.
She Squcichea Him.