Just at the present moment there is not, I think, in all Europe or
America a personage more talked about than Jumbo. Even the Queen, who
was shot at a few weeks ago by a poor crazy man, but not hurt; even the
Czar, who is shut up in one of his Russian palaces for fear of being
shot at, are having less said about them.
Jumbo, as I am perfectly sure you all know as well as I do, is an
elephant, the biggest elephant in captivity, as gentle as he is big, and
the English people, young and old, are very fond of him.
He is an African elephant, and Sir Samuel Baker, a Fellow of the
Zoological Society, who knows a great deal about elephants, says that he
knew Jumbo when he was a baby about four and a half feet high, and had
just been captured by Arabs on the shore of the Settite River, in
Abyssinia, in 1861. Now Jumbo, the pride of the English Zoo, is
twenty-one years old, and measures eleven feet in height to his withers,
which is the high ridge between the shoulder-blades just at the end of
the neck. He is very skillful in catching buns and apples which are
thrown to him by his young admirers.
[Illustration: A FAREWELL RIDE ON JUMBO.]
Our picture of this enormous but gentle creature represents him in the
act of giving a farewell ride to a party of his little friends. From
this picture you will see that Jumbo's head and ears differ from those
of the Indian species. His forehead is not so high and prominent; his
ears are much larger, of a different and handsomer shape, while the
brows are very large and full over the eyes, and the eyes themselves,
when you can see them through the thick long lashes, have a really
wonderful expression of intelligence and dignity. He has a long trunk,
very powerful and graceful; but his tusks seem to be only roots, just
showing through the skin at the sides of the face, and it is said that
he has kept them worn down by rubbing them against the walls of his den.
As soon as it was known that our great American showman, Mr. Barnum, had
bought Jumbo for his travelling show, Jumbo, big as he is, was in
everybody's mouth, and a very great fuss was made about his own
unwillingness to go. The newspapers took up the matter, and gave whole
columns of talk to Jumbo. It seemed to be taken for granted that nothing
more dreadful could happen to the poor beast than to fall into Mr.
Barnum's hands.
The newspapers printed a great many letters from children, who offered
their pocket-money, in sums from sixpence to three or five shillings, to
buy Jumbo back again. They all wrote with the same idea, that Jumbo
would be cruelly used, and would surely die, if he were taken away; but
still it was quite clear that the little writers of these letters were
not entirely unselfish in their grief, for they had a great deal to say
about the nice rides they had already had, and still wished to have, on
Jumbo's enormous back.
Older people went so far as to propose to raise money to pay back to Mr.
Barnum the £2000 he had given for Jumbo, and perhaps £400 or £500
besides for his disappointment, but nothing more was said of this plan
after Mr. Barnum telegraphed that £100,000 would not buy Jumbo back. As
Mr. Scott, Jumbo's keeper, said to me, "Mr. Barnum understands his
business," and it began to appear that the Zoo Society Council had _not_
understood theirs. Every one who knows Mr. Barnum knows that he is
exceedingly kind to animals, and that they thrive, are happy, and live
long under his care.
But the English people are not so well acquainted with Mr. Barnum as
they will be, perhaps, when Jumbo comes back to the English "Zoo"--as
Mr. Barnum very kindly says that he may--and tells his own story. And,
after all, it is only fair that Jumbo should try for himself the flavor
of American buns, and find that the boys and girls of America are as
pleasant to carry and as kind as their English cousins.
People old and young flocked daily to the "Zoo." They carried bags and
baskets of buns, crackers, and sweetmeats, and everybody went straight
to the elephant-house. Parrots, monkeys, pelicans, and lions were
nowhere. On Ash-Wednesday (February 22), I went myself, and when I first
entered the elephant-house I thought it must be all going to tumble
down, I heard such a loud, startling noise. But it was only Alice, the
elephant that they call Jumbo's wife, calling for food. The sound she
made by gathering her breath in her cheeks, and blowing it forcibly
through her long trunk, was much like that made by crashing both hands
strongly down on the bass keys of a church organ when all the loud stops
are on.
The greatest crowd was in front of Jumbo's cell. He did not call for
food, but stretched his long and elastic trunk out in front of us just
like a plate for pennies in church. When let out of the garden, he
walked quietly with an even and slow step--which took him along so fast,
though, that Scott had to run to keep up with him--until he came to the
ladder where the children climb to mount him. The saddle, or howdah, as
it is called, was put on his back, and more than a dozen boys and girls
mounted, and away went Jumbo, stepping so slowly, but going fifteen feet
at a step. Five times I saw him go down the promenade with his laughing
load, and come back again to the ladder for a new supply, and each time
he looked larger to me than ever. Then he went back with his keeper to
his house, and I came away.
After Jumbo was sold, and the problem of moving him came to be
considered, an effort was made to get him out of the Gardens and to the
Millwall Docks on foot. He went along willingly enough, Scott leading
him, until they reached the end of the "Zoo" grounds, but before going
out into the road he tried it cautiously with his feet, and perceiving
at once that it did not feel like the shingle paths in the "Zoo," he was
afraid, and would go no farther.
Then a great box was made, which stood open at both ends. This was
mounted on strong wheels, and was so placed in the garden gateway that
when the elephants passed out from their own garden into the main
grounds they had to walk through it. The wheels were sunk into the
ground on a track, and the floor of the box was on a level with the
ground. Alice walked through the box back and forth quite willingly, but
for some days it was impossible to coax Jumbo to go into it.
Scott was asked to try whipping Jumbo, but he answered that he had never
yet struck his favorite a blow, and he never should. In all other
respects Jumbo was perfectly obedient and gentle, but he seemed to think
that the box was a trap, and to know almost as well as everybody else
that if he once went in, he might not come out. It was the intention to
let him get used to the box by going through it, and then it was thought
that when at last it was closed upon him he would not mind so much about
it.
He was also put in chains, in order to accustom him to being fastened
during the voyage. At first they were only put on in the mornings, but
he made so much fuss and trouble about having them put on the last time,
it was thought unwise to remove them again. They are cased in leather,
so as not to fret him in the least. They were spread in loops, all over
the floor of his cell, and men stood ready at different points to draw
them up around him the moment he should place his feet within any of the
loops; but the intelligent fellow managed to avoid them for some time.
But he grew tired at last, and began to thrash about with his trunk and
ears, and Scott, who was in his cell with him, trying to persuade him,
got suddenly pushed up against the wall by a backward movement of
Jumbo's huge body. In a moment more he would have been crushed to death,
but he had the presence of mind to call kindly to Jumbo, who understood,
turned instantly, and released him. Jumbo then became quiet, and the
chains were placed.
Kind treatment finally set Jumbo's suspicions at rest, and he was
persuaded to walk through the strong box and back again. When this had
been done a number of times the box was fastened at both ends, and the
poor fellow was a prisoner. He was then, without further delay, shipped
on board the _Assyrian Monarch_, and on the 22d of March started on his
voyage across the Atlantic.
It is claimed that Jumbo was sold because he had now become liable to
have the "must," a disease peculiar to most full-grown elephants, in
which they become very dangerous. Jumbo has had only one attack, and was
well behaved during it when let out of his cell. Scott does not feel
afraid of him, and Mr. Barnum has so long had the care of elephants that
we think Jumbo's best friend need not worry about him.