The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-02
THE CAMEL.
An Englishman,s Witty Description
of the Animal.


London News
The camel. be 1t once said, IS an
everrated 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 at
.tached to his great, unwield1y carcass
with seemingly so little consideration
for the uses to which (merely viewed
as legs) he might be expected to put
them. And his neck and tail are so
obviously disportionate to the rest of
him, and both SO useless, that one can
not avoid the thought that the camel
is somehow incomplete, or, owing to
some mistake, was never finished off
at all.
Even the qualities he possesses tend
to strengthen one in this bewildering
suspicion. For instance, he can kick
himself violently in the let us say the
front of the back-with his foreleg. He
have I devoted long hours fruitlessly,
l must admiD to an attempt to win
the confidence of my favorite camel
my favorite because he is less cruel to
me than the others. l have WOoed him
with the soft note of my kourbach.
/ have tempted him with. the thorniest
of mimoSa branches. / have puffed
rils. And then, just as | have fancied
saw the light of sympathy dawning in
hts long-lashed eye, he has risen all of
one movement to his feet, grinned at
me in a frightful manner, disclosing a
forest of green and broken teeth and
gazing at me full, with more vindictive
contempt than / have ever marked IN
any human eye, has kicked himself
violently in the stomach and lain down
he
away and don't bother, like good
boy
Then he can gnaw his own tail-his
absurd useless little rag Of tail that
isn't even worth biting. But Is that an
object worth living for? Or, again, he
has, to be sure, seven stomachs, OF
which, vain beast, he is so Unfortunately
proud (as though he had anything to
do with it, that he is constantly fetch-
ing UP one Of them to show you. and
blows it out from his great ugly throat
in a horrid, glittering, transparent bulb
for you to admire. A more nauseating
practice could hardly be conceived, but
the low brute will do it. One accom-
plishment 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, were
he luckier beast and the rest of his
Dulk CONDUCIVE nave SCINCd Hill III
good stead But as things are, 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
disabilities, the camel has, so far as his
country is concerned not yet been SUI
perseded by any yet more practical in
vention, and, despite the fact that his
temper is bad, his appetite vast and
sordid. his capacity for. prolonged ex-
istence without water a giddy fiction,
his carrying capacities mean and his
locomotive powers exasperating meager
yet he is all we have, and on him we
must largely depend throughout this
Dongola expedition. DR.. Conan Doyle,
who is one of our party, believes, after
week or so acquaintance with him,
that he has discovered in his riding
camel great delicacy of sentiment and
much dignity of demeanor But then
DR.. Conan Doyle is a man Of so wide
charity that he actually believes in,
and even admires-well, no, / will not
say who it is. Let every one guess for
himself. But If that person, why not
the camel? Why not, indeed? Perhaps
I may have some day something pleas
ant to say about my camels Time
must decide. Is it a long-lived beast, I
wonder?