The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-06
STORIES OF THE STREET.


William c. Boyd, now head of .The
Man From Mexico company. is an old
circus agent, and tells the following in
teresting secret regarding the white eIe-
pnant, which years ago agitated the cir
Gus patrons of this country to a greater
extent than anything ever brought for
ward in the tented world.
Ot course everybody knows now that
this white pachyderm was fake, but
the column notices given it by news
papers throughout the land would make
dramatic agent of today turn green
with envy.
was at that time pretty close to the
throne with the great Forepaw show,
and in the confidence of it's general
manager, man who still stands fore
most in his line of business and who was
personally responsible for what was then
done.
''The rivalry between the Forepaugb
and the Barnum-Bailey shows was at
white heat in 1880, and when word was
cabled to Mr.. Bailey by j. B. GAYLORD
his foreign agent, that he had purchased
the sacred white elephant from the king
or Siam, CONSERVATION reigned in the
Forepaugh camp. What was to be done?
Nothing equal to this had ever been
SHOWN under tent 1t meant lifting
OF the BarnGm-Bailey standard, and a.
crushing defeat of the Forepaugh forces
That was not to be thought of, but how
could 1t be avoided. No other attraction
could equal it, except another white ele-
phant, and none was known to exist
nearer than the far-off country of Siam,
and Barnum-Bailey had the start
Old Adam Forepaugh ragged with i'm
potent fury, apostrophized his many
neutenantS because, as he said 'Ye amt
no sma1ter'n L am and gloom settled
over the entire camp, until the general
manager quietly said:
!" You have twenty-five elephants, Gov
ernor'
Yes, said old Adam, but they're all
black
" Then paint one,' said the manager
And get found out and let the Bar
num-Baileys have the laugh on US? Oh,
no, not much
They needn't find it out. Take the
elephant to some out-of-the-way place,
paint 1t white, put it on a schooner and
transfer 1t to some incoming Atlantic
steamer outside the heads, reach New
York in time for this tour, and beat the
Barnum-Baileys at their own game. 1t
can be done safely if you spend money
enough.
Good boy, Lew shouted Adam,
you're an honor to the sawdust'
''And that was what was done. The
old elephant BeSs' was taken to a barn
ten miles south Of Baltimore, painted
a beautiful white, with a natural tinge
of pink. loaded on a schooner called the
Adelaide. and brought to Sandy Hook,
where it lay ten days, until an ocean
steamer arrived to which the elephant
could be transferred at o'clock in the
morning. Of course all the Forepaugh
press agents were at work in the city,
with the result that every New York pa
per had representative at the wharf
to meet the steamer, when the general
manager paid the customs officials the
duty on old Bess, who had been in this
country long enough to be a voter.
Columns were published the next day,
not only in the New York papers, but
throughout the country
''The Barnum- Bailey spies were pIenti-
full, but they failed to discover the fake
until the tenting season opened. Then
Bess began to turn slightly darker, and
a second application Of the paint became
necessary. Whatever was in the mixture
used, this second painting proved fatal
to poor Bess, and she died, martyr to
excessive business competition