Evening star., 1924-03-09
l onnage, Preferred
BY COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER
Ownership of
Jus nsaeed t obeM Married. -

ped me yesterday and asked me why
| We didn't feed that elephant"
"Oh!"
"Yeh. Seemed to think we're starv-
ing him on purpose. How much has
he lost nova half TOM"
Mr.. Greer sighed.
MOP" The old man grunted.
"Well-I don't guess we'd better. at
least, not when there's any of these
| spies for the American Mastodon
Shows around. I've got tip OH 'em."
"Oh!" Some way, Mr.. Greer had
lost his usual flow of language,
you've got a tip?"
'Yeh. They're feeding that big
bull Of theirs about eight times Il
day. Somebody's been sending 'em
the dope on how Beelgie's falling off.
Figure to get their elephant to weigh
more than ours, and then give us
the ringdown. A short, fat elephant
always looks bigger'n tall skinny
one.
He gazed at the now cadaverous
, Beelgie. while Mr.. Greer gazed in
tently in the other direction. The
situation was getting a bit beyond
control. Mr.. Greer's contract read
for a hundred dollars a week only
SO long as Beelgie remained the big
gest elephant in the world. There
was nothing in that contract to say
how this bigness should be deter
mined. Height? Beelgie had that
all right. Weight? 1t was slipping.
|
deadly wallop! For the public would
go to see the elephant which look ed
the biggest.
To add to the distress of every
thing, the circus was approaching st.
Louis. Once there, Mr.. Greer knew
exactly what Margery would do.
More. when st. Louis finally arrived,
she did It!
Not that she said a word to Mr..
Greer. He was entirely beneath her.
She talked instead to her girl friends.
whom she brought to the circus, and
assembled before Beelgie, entirely
ignoring the we'll dressed young
gentleman who iuffed in the back
ground. or course, it had to be one
Of those times when Beelgie's visage
was at its sourest-just after he had
been made the recipient OF a gallon
OF stomach bitters.
THERE he stood, only a shell of his
former self. His hide bagged at
the knees. Tho curl was gone from
his trunk. Under his CLASSY eyes
were pouches Of skin for which there
was no earthly use, since the flesh
which once had held them up had de-
parted In places along Beelgie's
sides the ribs showed evidence of a
desire to come out and look at the
scenery. He had fallen away from
majestic eight and a half tons to
a mere. mass Of some fifteen thou
sand and a quarter. In fact, and
without prejudice, as the worlds most
ponderous pachyderm Beelgie right
then was tremendous flop.
"And to think, Miss Margery CAL
houn announced, in voice which
carried much farther than her girl
friends, that 1 ever could be in
terested in a person who would buy
a thing like that
hSh ohC PdSscu Di1tneiE on.
Blankly Mr.. Greer stared after her,
then moved on out to the front door.
A week passed. Ten days more.
The circus journeyed into the south,
while rumors journeyed to the cir
Gus.
AS for Beelgie himself. things were
approaching a climax. 1t so hap
pened that the head pullman de-
cided that Beelgie needed rest and
cut him out of parade.
Piteously, because some stirring
instinct within him called for that
bit of exercise, Beelgie raised his
trunk and 'chirruped, when the bands
began to play and the long parade
moved off the lot without him. The
boss elephant man misunderstood en-
tirely and walloped Beelgie on the
beezer. Beelgie had hated the medi-
cine, but he had taken it. Beelgie
had looked upon the boss pullman
as a sort of professional tormentor,