Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-22
By TOBY HAMILTON

Well, worked for ten days
that little beast with the peroxid of
hydrogen mixture and ammonia, until at last we
had it white snow.
lust how long the bleach would have lasted 1
cannot say, but it did last long enough to serve
our purpose. Forepaugh's show to open in
Philadelphia that week &c. bright and early the
morning of their street parade we were on hand,
and when their parade started, in we popped, little
bleached elephant and all, with the sign An exact
counterpart of Forepaugh's fraudulent white ele-
plant, only better job by better artists"
That signal for war, and war 1t was for the
rest of the season. In vain they displayed the
Endorsement of Professor Leidy and that of
professor of Ann Arbor Unversity-our little ele-
plant pointed to, and the rest was laughter.
To the great public white elephants had ceased to
be-
Finally a compromise was made, and from that
time on the white-elephant business abandoned
1t had cost them about one hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars, and us about a hundred and twenty
FIVE thousand.
The public is skeptica1 and will not accept any
attraction genuine until it has been proved So
For instance, manufactured freak, save in the case
of the Circassian girl-a fake, perpetrated by The
London Times has in my memory proved
success Freaks must be genuine, and to obtain
a good collection requires considerable expense;
of less than eight hundred dollars week. They
demand prima-donna salaries. Milla Christian
now retired, never received less than thousand
dollars a week. and the same is now received by
the giantess Ella Owens.
Freaks Popular in England
IN England, owing TO the lack OF dime museums
the public more interested in them than it
is here. Our collection raised perfect Juror The
illustrated papers were filled with their pictures
and the King himself went to see them Dwarfs
had of course been SEEN since Barnum made his
European trip with General Tom Thumb; but the
bearded women, gasseaters giantesses, living skele
tons and the rest, all on exhibition at time
that was too much for the British public; it went
wild over them
Other natural freaks, such bulls with three
horns and COWS with three horns and eyes, are not
so hard to find. They not always to be had
but on the other hand they may be found in all
countries. Sometimes it will be years before we
find what at other times will be only too easily
obtained. 1t took years to get giraffe but
then four came at once.
So it is the genuine freak only that it would paw
to exhibit. The public at least knows what it
wants, and try to provide it. But our poor
old white eephantl He had done his best for u.s.
he was genuine, and he certainly novelty.
But like Bret Hartes Truthful James, his chances
were ruined by Chinese cheap labor, SO to speak,
by sort of near white elephant, and he was passed
into tent twenty-three.
A blue-nosed mandril, known to every scientist the
world over is to the great public painted fraud.
1t insists that its blue has been dyed artlh-
ciay that the brilliant rainbow colors-the red,
white blue green, and orange-which appear
on its runp at certain seasons of the year, and
natural are also the result of dye and deception.
The blue nosed mandril is too blue, the white ee
plant is not white enough What are you going to
do about it?