Year: 1877

DOnt you thlnk that would be an i'm


provement?'


Maybe it would" said Biles.


And, Mr.. Biles, il you were to daut


in another kind of an elephant perhap,


the cravings of the public mind for con


formity to nature would be better salts


fed. This elephant is so constructed


that an ordinary observer cannot tell which
is his tail and which is his trunk. He
looks to me as if he were picking up hay
with his tail and switching flies with his
trunk. see that you have painted him
q light green color, too. Now light
green elephant is rarely seen. cannot
offer such phenomenon to the public.
What you want is to go out and study
elephants couple of years SOS to get
some kind of a general idea of what they
are like SOS to ascertain that their ears
do not stick up like rabbits, and that
they have no wings. If those wings ever
reach the public eye I'm goner. Now
you must know that an elephant has no
wings?'


Maybe it hasn't"


q" There is another thing. I've been
trying to find out what You meant by
painting in that picture a flour barrel ly-
| >
the side of it and calf's head sticking
out of the end. We have nothing of the
kind in our menagerie. We do not barrel
our calves, and if we did we should not
place the barrel on the table"
why, thunderp said Biles, that's
intended for dromedary. That's not a
keg; it's the hump on the dromedary's
back"


g. Oh, it is, hey? Well, our dromedary
is less phenomenal than that. / think |
would reconstruct the picture. Our OBJ
ject is to instruct the public; not to make
them laugh. And while you are at it,
would fix up that pig somehow. Pre-
ciseiy why you have wrapped the pig in
blankets and represented it with car
buncle on lis snout, do not know.
suppose you must have had some mys-
terious purpose in view"


You don't understand. That is a
rhinoCeros with horn on his nose. What
you call blankets is his thick skin hang.
ing in folds"


All, ha! should never have sus-
pected it. Smear it over, anyway! a
rhinOceros like that would provoke
riot. The public would hurst the tent
down. l think, if were you, I'd over
haul that picture of the acrobat making
a doubleback somersault. You will see,
upon examination, that you have given
him three legs and put the knees at the
back like the hind legs of horse, and
you have put two elbows on his right
arm. He does not place his head under
his armpit, as you depict him, and he
never jams his nose against the small of
his back. I'd build him over again, and
at the same time reduce the size of the
clown so that he will not appear twice as
big as the elephant by which he is stand
ing. You must either run up the ele-
phant or compress the clown"


MAYBE it'd be better"


think so. Have you made up your
mind whether that is zebra or Bengal
tiger? Sometimes think it's one, and
sometimes the other; and my ring-maste
has bet with me that you meant it for
a COW, because it has horns. should
have thought so myself if you hadn't put
stripes on it and painted it with bill
like poll'parrot. 1t will excite curl
osity as it stands, but l think you'd
better make up your mind what kind of
an animal you want it to be and then re-
arrange the details. If you intend it for
a poll-parrot, wipe out a couple of legs,
and if you propose tiger, modify the
beak and remove the feathers from the
tail. There is large scope for improve
ment in that work of art"


"Pll look it over" said Bliss.


DO. Now observe that kangaroo!
The hind legs of real kangaroo are long
and its fore legs are short. But you
have made one hind leg and one fore leg
long and the other two short. You have |
got up kangaroo that can walk side
ways on steep hill, first-rate. But it is |
unlike thekangaroo of nature, and you
hurt the effect more by representing it in
the act of laying an egg in nest on the |
top of a tree. S'pose you modify that
kangaroo a little, and also stop that |
Brazilian ape from reading the news
paper while he picks his teeth with his
tail. People go wild about such blum
ders."


why, that isn't intended for an ape"
said Biles. l painted that for a rict-
ure of you standing in the ring looking |
over the programme whileyou sucked the
end of your cane"


"Mep


" Yes, sir, likeness of you"


Mr.. Bilcs, that lets you out. You |
mean well, no doubt; but you are not in
your element as the artist of first-class |
circus. When man gets out portrait !
OF me so that it is mistaken for Bra |
lillian ape his usefulness is ended. You |
can go, sir. I'll hunt up another painter
to finish the contract Mar AdeLer.