AN INDIAN ELEPHANT.--Some of you have been very much interested in Jumbo
and his enormous appetite. A traveller who engaged an elephant to carry
him over a part of India during a journey which occupied some weeks,
gives this account of the elephant's food, and of the care which he
received while on the march: Every day he was fed with cakes composed of
flour, ghee (which is clarified butter), and coarse salt. Twenty-five
pounds of flour were mixed and baked, and one-half the quantity was
given to the elephant in the morning, and the other in the evening.
Besides these cakes, he ate freely of the leaves and branches of trees.
Each morning he would go with his mahout, or driver, into the jungle,
and there he would choose and pick the branches he liked best, loading
them on his back, and taking the supply home to the camp. There was a
kind of marshy grass which he considered a very choice dessert. When a
person engages an elephant, he of course engages the mahout as well. The
mahout usually takes his wife and children with him, as it takes several
people to keep an elephant comfortable. Every morning and evening he
must have his bath, and before beginning the day's march his forehead,
ears, paws, and every part of his body likely to be cracked with the sun
must be greased. When the party comes to a halt, the elephant's heavy
trappings are always taken off, and he is allowed to rest under a
spreading tree. When an elephant does not feel well, he makes a pill for
himself without saying a word to the doctor. With his trunk he rolls up
a ball or two of red earth, and swallows it, just as naturally as pussy,
when her head aches, scampers off to the catnip bed, and takes a dose of
her favorite herb.
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MYRTLE.--I think a Shakspeare club such as you and your girl friends
have organized must be both pleasant and instructive. Instead of so many
stories, dear, let me persuade you to read books of travel which will
give you an idea of the world we live in; and when you tire of them, and
want a change, try history. The books you mention are too exciting and
highly wrought to be good reading for you at present. I think you would
find Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake" and "Marmion" very
fascinating, and Miss Strickland's _Queens of England_ would keep you
delightfully occupied all summer.
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TOM H.--Sir Richard Whittington, the hero of the tale of _Whittington
and His Cat_, was born about 1354, in Gloucestershire, England. He was
not a beggar boy, but belonged to a good family. When less than ten
years old he was sent to London to be a little apprentice. From step to
step he rose, until he became a great merchant, and finally Lord Mayor
of London. Very likely he did send his cat away on one of his employer's
ships to clear the vessel of rats and mice, and it would not be at all
strange if he sometimes fancied he heard the sweet tones of the
Bow-Bells calling to him
"Turn again, Whittington,
Lord Mayor of London."
Few boys become successful men without ambition. It is a good thing to
mean to be somebody one of these days. But doing well is better than
dreaming. The lad who works with all his might at whatever he begins,
never slighting any duty until it is done, will be sure to make a useful
and honored man. Now, as I have preached my little sermon, let me tell
you some of the noble things Dick Whittington did. He caused a conduit,
or pipe, of water to be put on tap in the wall of St. Giles's church,
thus making a drinking fountain five hundred years ago very much like
those we have now. He built the Guildhall Library in 1419. He repaired
hospitals, and did a great deal of good among the poor and the sick, and
was very kind to children. He died in 1423.
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We would call the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. this week to the
article entitled "Handel and 'The Messiah,'" by Mrs. John Lillie, to
"Oiling the Waves," and to "Photography and Work." In the latter Mr.
Allan Forman endeavors to point out to young amateur photographers the
way to overcome some of the difficulties that are likely to attend their
earlier efforts. We hope that no one who has procured an outfit will
become discouraged or induced by a few failures in the beginning to
abandon this delightful and improving pastime, which has recently become
so popular.
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