The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-01-12


Of the show, and that elephant acted
just as human as could be, for he fair
ly toadied to pa, like a society leader
that has given the cold shoulder to
some one that is as good or better than
they, or like an impudent employe who
has insulted his employer and is afraid
OF losing his job. After that whenever
pa and I go around the elephants they
bow down to us, and l think could
take an iron hook and drive an ele-
plant anywhere.
There are all classes among the ami
mails in a menagerie the same as hui
man society. The lions are like the
leaders of society who are we'll born
and proud, but poor. They are always
invited everywhere, but never enter
tain, though they kick and find fault
and ogle everybody, and look wise and
| distinguished.
The sacred cattle are too good to
| live and pose as the pious animals who
do not want to associate with the bad
animals and are constantly wearing an
| air of II am holier than any of you,"
but they will reach through the bars
of their cage and steal alfalfa from the
Yak and the mule deer, and if they
kick about it the sacred cattle look
! hurt and act like it was part of their
duty to take up collection, and they
below sort of hymn to drown the
| kicking.
The different kind of goats in
| menagerie are the butters~in, or the
new rich, who get in the way Of the
| society leaders and try to Guido them
in society stunts, but they smell so
that the other animals are made sick
and the goats are only tolerated be-
cause animal society is afraid to Of
fend them, for fear the leaders may
some time go into bankruptcy and the
goats will take their places and never
let them get smell of the good things
of life.
The bears are the working people of
the show, and the big grizzlies are the
walking delegates who control the
amalgamated association of working
bears, and the occupants of the other
cages have got to cater to Uncle
Ephriam, the walking delegate, or
be placed on the unfair list and
slugged.
The hyenas and the jackals, and the
wolves, represent the anarchists who
are down on everybody in the show,
who won't do a thing to help along
and won't allow any other animal to
do anything, and who seem to want to
burn and STAY, to carry a torch by
night and poison by day, and want
everything in the show to be chaos
Those animals are never so happy as
when the wind and lightning strike the
tent, and blow it down, and kill peo-
pie, and create panic, and then these
anarchists sing and laugh and enjoy
their peculiar kind of animal re-
ligion.
The Zebras and giraffes are the
dudes of the show, and you can mag
inc, ii they were human, they would
play tennis and golf, drive four in
hands and pose to be admired, while
the Royal Bengal tigers, if they were
half human, would drive automobiles
at the rate of a mile a minute on
crowded streets, run over people and
never stop to help the wounded, but
skip away with sheer, as much as to
say: What are you going to do
about it,
The seals are the clean-cut Baptists
OF the show, who believe in INNER
sion, and they have more brain than
any animals in the show, because they
live on a fish diet, though they have a
pneumonia cough that makes you feel
like sending for a doctor.
| Gee, but last night when we thought
spring had come and we could start
on the road pretty soon, the snow fell
about a foot deep, and it was 50 cold
that all the animals howled all night,
and shfvered, and went on regular
strike. We had to put blankets on
them, and no one of them seemed to
be comfortable except the polar bears,
the arctic foxes and the fat woman.
The other owners of the show thought
it was a good time to take the boa
constructor and pull an liberated tooth,
cause he was sort of dumpish, 60 pa
} and I helped hold the snake, which IL
about 20 feet long.
i Pa was up near the snakes head,
and when the man with the forceps
got hold Of the tooth and gave it q
yank, the COMPOUNDED snake come to
and began to stand on his head and
thrash around, and pa dropped his
hold and started to climb the cepter
pole, but he got caught in a gas0fise
torch, and they had to turn a hose on
pa, and he was awful scared, cause he
always did hate snakes, but they gave
the snake chloroform and got him
quiet, and pa came down, and they
gave Him pair of baggy trousers be-
longing to the clown, to go to dinner
in, and pa was a sight.
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