Evening Star Newspaper, May 29, 1921, Page 53

' - can buy some cloth and a little pow- 1 May never come? - plenty.” he responded. “You may take © over for i [ MAGAZINE SECTION L .'%unflay %h:[f E FEATURES | WASHINGTON n C, SUNDAY MORNING., MAY 29, 1921. Difficulties Encountered in Mastering a Herd of Sixty Elephants He By Charles Mayer Tllustrated by Will Crawford T ok more fan a week after the departure of the Sultan of Treng- nu for the natives to get their fill | of celebration. While they feasted and danced I made my plans for the &tocks in which the sixty clephants were to be broken. The breaking of elephants, especially | ®0 large a herd, is a long, tedious job. 1 was thankful that I had Prince Omar with me to keep the natives working. “The hunter, who kills and skins his ani- mals, has a simple life compared with t3e collector, who must not only take the animals alive and uninjured, but @onvey them through miles of jungie wountry to a port. Months of hard Jabor were before us, and the suceess of the expedition was by no means assured, «ven though we had our clephants safe in_the stockade. It was to be a great test in managing the natives. There is only one thing that a Mala values, and that is his kris—his knife. To lose this cherished possession means 10 lose honor. There is a saying to the effect that money will buy evervthing but a lucky kris. Their disregard of money makes all dealings with Malays extremely difficult. and their dislike for work_has completely blocked more than one project. To my mind, the Malays are the laziest people in the world. When work is an exciting or amusing game, such as the hunt, they will go on for days without signs of fatigue. They meem 1o keep alive by some fanatic en- ergy. But when work is just plain labor | i y “Wait" or “I musf nk.” Or a Malay may say candidl. Sir, 1 have just had plenty to eat. [ am con- tent.”” Many times T have had a Malay tell me, when 1 asked him to do some i phant the white man who had engineered a great drive of sixty elephants and who owned the exceedingly marvelous gun that his man, Ali. displayed with such proud ostentation. Tnasmuch as they were receiving no money for their work. they had some right to object, but 1 humored them with promises of cclebrations and games. The white man's camp be- came a popular place in Trengganu. Wonderful tales of what was donc there spread through the country, and the men who had been to the camp could command an audience in their home compounds when they returned. The elephant drive was a historic event in the country. and henceforth we had little trouble with labor. * % % % TTHE work of breaking wild ele- phants must be carried on n painstaking exactness, for one cle- can create havoc in a few seconds if the men lose control. The first task is the building of the stocks where the elephants are to be held while they become accustomed to men: then comes the work of driv- ing into the ground. about four feet apart. two rows of heavy stakes. leading from the trap to the stocks. | Also. next the trap. a small inclosure, four or five feet wide by fifteen long. is built at the end of the passageway formed by the stakes. The piles of the trap are removed from the en- trance to this inclosure and bars are substituted. Sinci the elephants were given practically no food dur- ing the time they were kept in. the trap. they were half-starved when the breaking commenced. In their ONE BELLOW OF PAIN—HIS SPIRIT IS BROKEN. work, that he had enough rice and fish | for the day and that he might die during the night.” It is an unanswerable argu- | ment. Tomorrow's food can be found ‘when tomorrow comes. * ¥ * ¥ THE Malay's food is simple and his clothes are few. With no more effort than dropping a few secds and covering them with earth he can grow most of the food he needs, aside from his rice and fish. One catch of fish will supply his family for weeks and give him a surplus to sell to the Chinese traders. With the money he der. Six or seven good sized chickens l- ne Mexican dollar, eggs cost Mexican vent. yams one ar (wo each; pineapples. two or thrce cents Why worry about the tomarrow that Why should a Malay gentieman, who believes in Allah and whose stomach is full, do the labor that can be done by heathen, pig- eating Chinese “Will you row me across the riv 1 asked 2 Malay one da: “Tuan, I have eaten and I have had my boat and row yourself across the river. Tomorrow. if Allah grants me life and if T need the boat. T will swim That Malay trait of living for the moment has led many a European to murder, and more than once it made me feel like running amok. It is mad- dening. Getting work out of Malays i% a fine art, a science to be learned only after vears of patient arguing and cajoling. And vet. with all their laziness. they are lovable people. In most cases they are brave and willing to do anything for a person they like ‘nder the circumstanc sick with fever and worn out by the drive through the jungle. I was entitied to some doubt as to what the next few months would bring. The sultan had left strict orders that 1 was to be pro- vided with all the labor I needed. and | ©Omar was there to assist me. How- ever. 1 waited with anxiety to see what the attitude of the natives; would be after they had finished celebrating. and 1 was encouraged to «&nd that I had earned the name Tuan Sir Elephant. They were impressed by weakened condition they were much less dangerous to handle, and, too, they could then be fed in such a way as to impress upon them the fact that good behavior brings good treatment. The young elephants required no breaking. and so they were lured from the trap with food. roamed about the camp, playing and watching operations. As soon as the tuskers were taken from the trap they were Killed for their ivory. The tusks were worth almost as much as I could get for the live animals, and tusks are far easier to handle than animals that have to be braken and fed. Also, as the animal dealers say. the elephant mizht “eat and die.” I did the killing with my express rifie. The explosive bullets produced instant death other vay of killing an elephant is 10 strangie him by running two ropes around his neck and having ele- phants pull him in opposite direc- tions. As soon as all the equipment for breaking was ready [ instructed the natives in their work. With a select crew of men. I rehearsed all the de- tails of what we were going to do and how we were going to do it Finally, 1 ordered food.placed in the inclosure and the bars drawn. The nearest _elephant . saw the food, sniffed. flapped his ears and walked in Breaking commenced. As soon as the elephant enters the the bars “behind He cats the food so smaller inclosure him are slipped. what is happening and the men put the knee and foot hobbles on him. These allow him about one-guarter of his normal step. Ratfan ropes are fustencd to his feet and drawn out through the bars: his trunk is se- cured so that he can do no damage with it There is a mreat deal of misunder- standing about what an clephant can do with his trunk. Tt is a sensitive organ and he never uses it for heavy labor, but he can rike a terrific blow with it. 1 have seen many a man’s ribs and arms broken when he neglected to take the proper pre tions. In approaching a dangerous eclephant a man should come up side- ways. with the ncarer arm folded to protect the ribs. Then, if thc cle- the power of phant strikes, he should try to catch | They | An- | agerly that he does not realize quite | n | | Trouble With the ™ This Story Mr. Mayer, Famous Animal Hunter and Collector, Tells of Breaking | is First Herd So That He Could Drive Them to the Seaport—Eight Months of Hard Labor—Little Peculiarities of a Gigantic Animal—The Incident of the Ele- | - phant With Twenty Toes—A Queer Deal With an Arab—The Value of Ivory Tusks. | Pet™ of a Zoo. the blow on the upper part of the arm, where there is the most flesh to protect the bonc. Such a blow never knocks a man flat: it sends him spin- | ning like a top until he tumbles over. * % % % ~HE elephant uses both his trunk and his lungs in calling, and he has a large variety of sounds and combinations of sound with which to express mimself. When rushing an enemy he trumpets shrilly; when en- | raged by wounds he grumbles hoarse- | {1y from his throat: he expresses fear by a shrill, brassy trumpet and a squeaking through the trunk. When tempting to intimidate an enemy he raps tie end of his trunk smartiy on the ground and trumpets. The pecu- liar noise sounds like that produced | by the rolling up of a sheet of tin. In a moment of danger the elephant coils his trunk to protect it from in- Ju When he is engaged in heavy work. such as piling lumber, he may use his trunk to balance the load he IS carrying on his_tusks, but never to bear part of the burden. If an un- harnessed clephant must pull a rope he holds it in his mouth, taking good | care to keep his trunk out of the way. It has happened many times that an elephant-keeper—not a train- er. for a trainer knows better—has used a hook a little too freely on an elephant's trunk. If he doesn’t get killed he picks himself up several yards from where he was standihg. A trainer is invariably pleased at such an occurrence, because it shows that the keeper was abusing the ele- phant and_has merely received his deserts. The clephant is a good. faithful animal. and does not attack his keeper without excuse. except Wwhen he is in what is called the “must” period, which I shall describe later. = When the elephant is secured by hobbles, foot-ropes and trunk-ropes, the bars leading from the inclosure are removed. The foot-ropes have been fastened to the stakes and are loosened as the elephant walks out. The men holding the ropes attached to the fore feet wind them around the two stakes ahead. and those holding the ropes attached to the hind feet wind them about the first stakes. In this way the animal is drawn forward, step by step. toward the stocks, while natives prod him from behind with poles. If he tries to bolt he simply falls over. It is a difficult. trying job, because the cle- phant is still vic The stocks are built in covered stalls, so that each elephant is sepa- rate from the others. Two large up- rights are driven into the ground in the shape of a V; the elephant's head is drawn between them, and they are pulied together at the top, So_that he is held securely behind the cars. At the corners are uprights. with poles to fence him in. running be- tween them. These poles. located a trifle below his belly, support two cross-bars, one just behind his fore legs and the other in front of his back legs. In this position it is impossible for the elephant to lie down or to move; he can wiggle his {leks and wave his trunk, but that lis an. The elephant remains in the stocks I for about two weeks. During that time he is fed and petted by a keep- er appointed for that particular job. The keeper crawls over his back and rubs him behind the ears and gives | him water. fruit and bamboo shoots. The elephant learns not to be afraid| when a man is near him. and he gradually becomes more docile. Dur- ing these two wecks he is fed very ightly because he must be Kept in a weakened condition. ¥k % % 1 A FTER two or three wecks, accord- & ing to the disposition of the ele- phant, ropes are again attached to his feet and he i3 led out of the stocks. This time he wears only the knee- hobbles, which allow him more play. | Eight or ten men hold each of the ropes; his keeper sitson his head with a prod; anothcr crew hold the rope attached to his trunk. and six or eight men follow with rattan whips. The men with the Whips beat him continually. At first, in the excite- ment, he does not mind the whip- { ping; then he finds the pain un- bearable. The men on the trunk- ropes lead him about from right to | left, while the men on the foot- ropes stand ready to trip him if he tries to bolt. At last he gives a bellow of pain and the whipping stops. This one bellow marks a surpris- ing change in the animal. His spirit is broken and he acknowledges that man is his master. The fact that he is instantly fed and petted helps him to make up his mind. of course, and to forget about the old, wild ways of the jungle. Thereafter a keeper who does not deliberately make him angry can handle him casily. His chooling is brief and he learns read- | ily to turn, kneel, back and pull. In return he is given plenty of food and is tied to a tree instead of being | put in the stocks. It occasionally that happencd an IT DID NOT TAKE % HANT HAD TWENTY « OES 1V 3 " SOUGHET FOR THE LLUL THEY BRIrG TO DISCOVER THAT THE STEAD OF Eit ARAR WASs W TEEN: AND TWENT)-TOEN ELEPHANGS ARE KEENLY | {yrned mhan ]l waa sicx with the fever, -1 they: become hardworking and, TO Y AL000. THE roar, and pleasure by a continued low ! apprehensive of danger or when at-! \ S e o Q0 i i i I FELT MYSELF SPIN BLUR; AND elephant refused to bellow. In that case. 1 had the men lead him out to be shot, for T knew I should be wasi- ing time in trying to break him. Eight months passed in thi I was sick with fever and dsyentor) and 1 was glad when we could brexk camp. Riding on the head of an ele- phant. 1 led my catch through the jungle to port. Once again I paid my respects to the sultan, who told me that I might hunt in Trengganu whenever I pleased. A year before, | should have been wildly delighted at the prospect of having Trengganu open to me under his protection. but now, with my heglth broken, T did not care much if I never saw the country again. 1 arranged for the keeping of the animals until they could be brought by boat to Singapore, and then I caught the first coast steamer south. taking four elephants with me. At Singapore 1 found that the story of the big capture had been the talk of the city for months. In fact, several days after T arrived, T went to call on _my former enemy. Mohammed Ariff. and he took off his turban and bowed. We had many dealings after that, and he always treated me with the greatest respect and honesty. ~When I was leading one of the fBmaller elephants through the streets on my way to the animal hous had rented in Orchard road, I aproached by an Arab. “Tuan mau jual?” (Sir, do you wish to sell?) he asked. “Of course.” T answered. 1 was sick and tired, and 1 did not want to be bothered. He persisted. “Tuan. how much?” “All of them or just on “That one,” he answered, pointing to the elephant I was leading. * % ok % ] THOUGHT he was asking just out of curiosity, and so I set a price that 1 thought would silence him— 1 $3.000 Mexican. “Tuan, truly will that?” “Yes He followed me to the animal house, and I wondered what he had on his mind. As a matter of fact, T would 1 work you sell it for cause it was young and small. At the animal house, he again asked me if I would sell for $3,000: then he undid several of the shirts he was wearing and pulled forth an old wallet. He gave me $500 to bind the bargain and called a friend of his to act as wit- ness. When he left to zet the rest of the money, T went to the stall where I had placed the animal and examined it. It didn't take me long to discover why the Arab was willing to i $3.000. The little elephant had twenty toes instead of thc usual eighteen. Twenty-toed elephants are held in veneration throughout Indi keenly sought by all the ra maharajahs for the prosperity they arc supposed to bring. They are guarded more carefully and quartered even more sumptuously than the white ele- phants of Siam, and the price they will bring is defermined almost en- tirely by the amount the rajahs can gather togother. My little twent toed elephant was a faultless speci- men. He was abou: five vears old, and stood four and a half feet high, His head was perfectly shaped; his back was straight and absolutely ‘even with the top of his head. I was naturally disgusted to think that 1 had let such a bargain slip out of my hands, and, when the arab re- T blamed him for cheating me SO RAPIDL have sold the elephant for $430, be- \\’\3\‘& ‘. i THAT THE ELEPHANT, MY MEN AND THE STALL WERE ALL A CAME UP AGAINST THE W WITH A THUD, abused him and his ancestors and!tionate. They never show any in- gave a great show of indignation. clination to go. back to the jungle. He begged me to take the money and even when used for the purpose of zive him the clephant; I refuscd the runninz wild elephants. Tn Siam all ney and told him to tuke the cle- the driving of herds into the traps is art otibicE My aishit [done on female clephants. and their 1" I Have put a curse on him." 1 said. | presence calms the herd. 1 h, ser “He will be within twenty-four | the tame elephants press in upon a ot | wild clephant. hoidinz him while he AU this he burst into tears, begx- docilely ailowed himself to be hob- ging me to remove the curse. He | bled. <aid that he was a poor man and * % % % that the elephant's death would ruin | Ihim. Finally we reached a com- P a e promise. He would pay me an cxtra| | D Munts in Siam are for tuskers, and the females are for the most part allowed to run free again to 13500, and T would arrange transpor itation to India for the elephant. Then, “TUAN, YOU MAY TAKE MY BOA ANTS M ACROSS TH BOAT, 1 W it the sale proved profitable, he was | breed. “The tuskers are used in the to return to, Singapore and pay me | teak forests for handling logs. The an additional $300. Hec swore by |females bear young about every three Allan and the Prophet that he would | s until they reach an age of from keep his word. So 1 removed the|Seventy to seventy-five vears. The curse and took his money and he | period of carrying varies from eight- departed happily. A month cen months in the case of a female baby - to case of & male. twenty-one months in the returned and paid me the A baby elephant, as ad sold the elephant to the maharajah | f Mysore for 10.000 rupees. The Arab | 1 have already written, wcighs ap- later bought four large clephants| proximately 200 pounds at birth and from me. | stands -thirty-six inches high. It uring my nineteen vears in the | suckles from six to nine months. The I captured hun but none of the breasts,of the female are located just Malay archipelago back of the fore legs. and the baby dreds of elephants, herds 50 large as my first cateh. | runs its trunk up along it> mother's And. though T alw. looked care- side while nursing. Its next food is fully at an elephant's feet hefore I|fruit and the tenderest bamboo sold him, never again did I bag onc ‘_\’hmv( 1t is very fond of sugar. Tt Erows the rate of one inch a month | with twenty toes. Of all the animals T have handled {up to it= third vear and in my experience as a eoliecior | -'full growth, but not maturit) at fer elephant The are interesting | about tsenty-five” The e of an jand amusinz beasts nd. once broken, elephant is told largely by the cars: agsé- |an old elephant has ragged ears and He didn’'t recoznize me until T put my hand on the scar. then he muttered deep down in his throat and lay down. 1 petted him and fed him suear. and he seemed to harbor no resentment against me, but he did remember me ir connection with a strenuous and un- pieasant afternoon [ sunken chee The height of an ele- phant is almost exactly twice the dis- tance. ground its foot § | A nera of elephants is invariably led by the females. perhaps because they are the more alert to catch the least sign of danger. If the herd 1s put to flight. the males take the lead. an | breaking through the jungle il i e i | making a trail for the females and young. An clephant never goex In next Sunday's Star Mr. Mayer will discuss the ship- ping of elephants, will relate . his adventures as manager of | a merry-go-round among the Malays and as purveyor of | animals to the King oy Siam, | and will give an account of ! his capture of a rhinoceros. around things: he either pushes them to one side or goes straight through {He i1s very sure-footed and, on a |thing that looks doubtful, he will never step without first putting out a | foot and trying it. For that reason; it requires some skill to build a pit- trap that will not attract attention A pit-trap is practically useless. how - cver. because the elephant is invaria- biy injured in the fall: it allows the Pture of the baby. in the case of females, but at the cost of the good.| full-grown animal. Wild elephants! srazing in a herd. travel rapidly if| they are frightened. but usually they, - saunter along. slecping during the| Rise of the Peanut. day and feeding at night consists chiefly of grasse shoots, coconuts and the hark trees. Lone elephants and outcasts from the herd are dangerous animals| and should be killed. Their food | bamboo NE often speaks of the rapid rise to fame and popularity of the b nana and tomato. but the pace these fair things have set is equalled by There comes a period. KNOWN aS|ie poanut's rise to eminence. Oner. “must.” when even the most reliable ' PERE S CEC Al elephant becomes A dangerous animal. | it was a little side crop which a few Like a Malay he red” and runs |farmers planted and which a few amok. A good clephant keeper canilowly men and churlish lads crack- Qetect the madness several days be-y ' o Nl T | fare"it reaches the dangerbus stage, |} and crunche £y : and, by securing the animal with |the one-ring circus or sat in the gall- hobbles, can prevent trouble. In the lery to hear Edwin Forrest act the fi(f;‘rl“'" :‘;"31: GGladiator or even so lately as to hear . hes 5 - And IO !John McCullough as Virginius or as checks of the elepha holes, called “error: holes oozes a slight secretion. One of attains its the keeper's duties each day is to ex-! amine the holes and run a piece of! straw into them. If there is an odor| of musk about the straw when he| pulls it out, it is an indication that| the “must” period is coming. Some-| times the keeper fails to make this| itest. and the elephant runs amok. | (Mhm: people and lcaving a trail of | wreckage behind him i On one of my visits to Sydney with | a consignment of animals for th Zoological Gardens. 1 found the en |llrv‘ crew of clephant keepers busy {with the task of trying to control an animal that was in “must.” His| keeper had failed to make the test.| and the clephant had suddenly gone! mad. Fortunately he was in his stall at the time. When I arrived. he had| wrecked the stall, and the keepers were afraid that he might get loose. Another stall had been arranged. but jthey could figure out no w of ichanging him to it. The men were thoroughly frightened and absolutely refused to risk hobbling him. The director of the gardens offered me {£100 if T would do it. and. since I had L Ali and several of my own men with {me, 1 agreed to try. | * x x x \\'ITH elephant hooks strapped to our wrists, we entered the stall. The elephant stood looking at us, ap- parently wondering which one he should knock down first. I told Ali to get behind him while I approached from the front. I went up to him sideways. speak- ing to him and offering him food. He waited quietly until T was near enough; then, before T could duck, he hit me with his trunk. T felt myself spinning @0 rapidly that the elephant. my men and the stall were all a blur; and I came up against the wall with a thud. Fortunately, there was a Futter running along the wall, and I dropped into it just as the elephant lunged forward at me. His big head hit the wall and the floor, but couldn’t get at me. He would not risk his trunk. because he realized that I { would jab him with the hook. Ali and the other men were at his tail, jabbing him and pulling. he turned for them, I jumped up and It became a game of jabbing and dodg- | and dthen the other. 1 took care to thrust my hook always in the same spot, tearing a raw wound in his side, whiie the other men caught him _on! he legs and on the trunk. We had to work fast to keep away from the big trunk. as it cut through the air, and hiy feet. when he kicked. Each of us {was sent_sprawling several times be- i fore the fizht was over. At last T could see that the elephant wasx paying more attention to the, wound I was making than to anything else we were doing; he favored the hurt side and tried to shield it. Then, | E RIVER. TOMORROW, IF ALLAH SWIM FOR IT.” with a bellow. he knelt down and dropped on his side to cover the wound. While T kept him down. Ali arranged the hobbles; then we petted him and allowed him to stand. He got to his| Teet doubtfully, as if he weren't sure that we were not playing a trick on him—urging him to £tand up so that we could jab him again. The wound ! I had torn in his xide was large enough for two fists, and it must have pained | him terribly. He was worn out by the | fight and he hobbled off to his new tall, much subdued. veral days ‘numbrr of ways. |some large, some ~small When | ing and worrying him to first one side ! ipreciate it and seek eagerly for Othello. the jealous, swathering moor of Venice. No polished gentleman could be secn or heard or smelled eat- ing a peanut any more than he could afford to walk through the black and white marble tiled lobby of the Fifth Avenue Hotel puffing on a clay pipe As late as 1570 the peanut had ne commercial standing 80 far as gov- ernment crop and commercial records £o0. Now all is changed. The bu- rcau of crop estimates of the Depart- ment of Agriculture and certain bu- reaus of the Department of Commerce treat it_with consideration and dig- nity. Nearly two million acres of Amcrican land, much of this being the sacred soil of old Virginia. are plant- ed annually in peanuts and the yield varies between thirty and fifty ‘mi lions bushels. In 1918 the yield w: 45.886.000 bushels and in 1919 an off vear for peanuts. the = yield fell to 33.000.000 bushels. The crop for this year cannot now be estimated. but it in belicved that the peanut will con- tinue to grow and prosper. Americans are caiing peanuts in a They eat peanuts peanuts in many forms of ndy. salted peanuts on the tables like salted almonds. peanut butter, peanut oil. and peanut meal or flour. And all the possibilities of the peanut have not yet been rcalized by the public. American farmers are not supplying the American demand for peanuts. Shelled peanuts by millions of pounds and peanut oil by millions of gallon come from China and Japan posses. sions in the Asiatic continent, and Japan grows peanuts for export and runs oil mills for crushing them. Kobe. and Osaka, Japan. and Shang- hai. China, are perhaps as great péa- nut marts as our own ity of Pelers- burg. in Virginia. India raises pea- nuts'and Spain is s DPepnut exporting countr: 3 The x.wzn(e s turning to peanuts peanut products just as the American te hps turned al- ready. One of the names for the pea nut is “earth-nut” and another i “ground nut.” There gre many wild varieties of this plant, some in Amer- ica, some in Europe and some in Asia and Africa. Out of these have been developed many domestic varieties, and some much richer in oil than others. The Encyclopedia Britannica has this on the nut: “Earth-nut. the English name for a plant known botanically as Conopo- traight. began running my hook into his side. dium denudatum, a member of the natural ordér of umbelliferae, which has a_brown tube-like root-stock th size of a chesnut. It grows in woods and fields. has a slender flexuous smooth stem two to three feet high, much divided leaves, and small white flowers in many-rayed terminal compound umbels. Boswell Syme in ‘English Botany' says: “The com- mon names of this plant in England are numerous. It is known as earth- nut. pig-nut, tar-nut, kipper-nut. hawk-nut, jar-nut earth-chestnut. and ground-nut. Though really excellent in taste and unobjectional as food, it is disregarded in England by all but pigs and children. both of whom ap- it. Dr. Withering describes the roots as little inferior to chesnuts. In Hol- land and elsewhere on the continent of Europe they are more generally eaten.” In the Cabinet Eneycloped and Treasury of Knowledge is this: “Ground-nut. a term which denotes the seeds or pods of the Arachis hy- pogoea, or the tubers of certain um- bellifers. It is a leguminous annual of diffuse habit, with hairy stem and abruptly pinnate leaflets. ‘The nut or pod is situated at the end of a stalk of some length, and is ripened under- ground, this stalk having the pecu- liarity ~after flowering of bending down and pushing the fruit into the earth. The plant is extensively culti- vated in tropical countries. The nuts have a flavor similar to almonds and vield an oil that may be used for olive oil.” “Vaudeville’s” Origin. u\'AL’DEVlLLE" is one of the words that from a small begin- ning has made for itself an important place in the world of words. Not more than thirty years ago it was a rare word with a majority of Amer- icans and it was pronounced in dif- ferent wavs and with no great de- gree of assurance. It was kmown to be a French word and most persons suspected that it was also a naughty word. In most cases and in most the- aters, it was prefaced with another word of French descent. That wogpd was_ “polite.” You seldom went to any other kind of vaudeville than “polite” vaudeville, and you some- j times even attended “refined” vaude- ville. But plain vaudeville was too risky for your morals. or, at least, for your reputation for morals in your home town. There was really never anything wrong with the word “vaudeville,” though it was often applied to shows of a very low intellectual tome, and perhaps stili i= In the fifteenth century there Tour- ished a poet whose name was Oliver Basselin. He wrote songs that were convivial. He lived in Normands. in that town which was called Vaude- vire. It was so named because it stood in the valley. or the =val” or “vau” of the river Vire. One of Bas- selin’s books of verse was calied by him “Songs of Vaudevire.” From this fact vaudevire came to mean throughout France a ‘rondelay.” a “virelay” or a rustic song. Then it came to stand for a comical rustic saving and later came to be applied to a little public entertainment where songs were sung and jokes cracked. As the vears and decades passed, the word “vaudevire” by some proc- { luter he came out of the “must” period, which rarely lasts for more than a { week, and became again the docile ele- | phant that took children on hix back for u ride. 1 went to see him several times be fore I returned to Sinzapore. and, when | {1 entered the stall. he edzed away from {me. protecting his side Years later, I.went to Sydney and entered his stall. ©ess that cannot with certainty be traced was changed to “vaudeville.” Terhaps, in some way. it was in mem- ory of the little place of Vaudevire which was a valley “ville” or valley Al any rate that is about the best that can be done_in telling how we came by the word which means an cntertainment of unrelated “asts”™ or “turps” . .