The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-24
SANDERS ON THE CAMEL.
A Rash Britisher Criticises PecuIi-
arities He Does Not Understand.


A correspondent of the London News,
writing from the Soudan, says:
The camel, be it at once said, is an over
rated beast There is a great deal of him,
but he is not for his size nearly so strong
as the useful, unpretentious donkey
Then, too, his anatomy is so strangely
conceived. His legs are attached to his
great unwieldy carcass with seemingly
little consideration for the uses to which
(merely viewed as legs) he might be ex-
pected to put them. And his neck and
tail are so obviously disproportionate to
the rest of him, and both so useless, that
one cannot avoid the thought that the
camel is somehow incomplete, that he
was finished off in hurry, or, owing to
some mistake, was never finished off at
all.
Even the qualities he possesses tend to
strengthen one in this bewildering sus-
picion. For instance, he can kick himself
violently in the-let me say-front of the
back with his fore leg. He does it con-
stantly.
Time and again have I devoted long
hours (fruitlessly, I must admit to an at
tempt to win the confidence of my favor
cruel to me than the others. l have wooed
him with the soft notes of my kourbash
have tempted him with the thorniest of
Mmosa branches. have pulled tobacco
smoke into his supercilious nostrls, and
then, just as l have fancied l saw the
light of sympathy dawning in his long
ment to his feet, grinned at me in
frightful manner, disclosing a forest of
green and broken teeth, and gazing at me
full, with more vindictive contempt than
1 have ever marked in the human eve
has kicked himself violently in the stom-
ach and lain down again. as one who
should say. Now, go away and don't
bother, like a good boy
Then he can gnaw his own tail-his alb
surd, useless little rag of tail that isn't
even worth biting. But is that an object
worth living for?
He has, to be sure seven stomachs. of
which, vain beast, he is so inordinately
proud las though he had anything to do
with it, that he is constantly fetching up
one of them to show you, and blows it
out from his great ugly throat in horrid
glittering transparent bulb for you to adj
mire. A more nauseating practice could
hardly be conceived, but the low brute will
do it.
One accomplishment, indeed. can give
him credit for. He can flick a fly from
the top of his head with his hind toe Now,
this in the age we live in might, We're he
a luckier beast, and the rest of his bulk
conducive, have served him in good stead.
But as things are, 1 fear he will make
nothing of it. His shape is fatally against
him, and he will never become fashionable
as a step dancer.
But with all his faults, defects and dis
abilities, the camel has, so far as this
country is concerned, not yet been SUPER
seeded by any more practical invention and
despite the fact that his temper is bad.
his appetite vast and sordid, his capacity
for prolonged existence without water a
giddy fiction, his carrying capabilities
mean, and his locomotive powers exas-
peratingly meagre, yet he is all we have
and on him must we largely depend
throughout this Dongola expedition.
DR.. Conan Doyle, who is one of our
party, believes, after a week or so Of sc-
quaintance with the camel. that he has
discovered in his mount great delicacv
Of sentiment and much dignity of AZ.
meanor. But them DR.. Conan Doyle Is