following suit with the caudal appendage of Tom, a
goodly number stepped up to the ticket booth and paid their entrance
money. The Colonel and his associates, whose business had made them
familiar with elephants, smiled at the credulity of the crowd, but
acknowledged the Proprietor's skill in attracting an audience.

[Illustration: _"Sam Watson confessed the whole thing."_]

"You wouldn't believe that I spent over seven hundred dollars to turn
that smallest elephant white a few years ago," said the Colonel as the
waiter refilled their glasses, but his companions made unanimous
protestation that they would believe any statement he made, and the
Colonel settled back comfortably in his chair to tell the story which
they demanded.

"You will have to listen to the story of the famous war of the white
elephants, then," he said, good-naturedly, "a struggle which will remain
famous in the circus world as long as the big tops are spread. It was in
the good old days of fierce competition in the business, the days when
the press agents earned every dollar of their salaries, and sometimes
had to go to the extent of saying things in print which were not
strictly true. There was intense rivalry between the two big shows, the
P. T. Barnum and the Forepaugh aggregations, and the bitter feeling
between the proprietors was transmitted to the employees. The advance
agents would steal each other's printed matter and posters out of the
express offices, and you could always count on a fight between the
canvas men whenever the two shows were close enough together. They
would damage each other's property, loosen nuts on the wagons so that
the wheels would come off and cause upsets, and do anything to embarrass
the rival show.

"Each show tried to outdo the other at every point; advertising, number
of performers, length of the street parade, menagerie collection and
everything which money could buy. They started in to see which could get
the largest herd of elephants, each advertising the largest herd in
captivity, and that competition raised the price of elephants all over
the world and denuded every small zoological park in Europe, while it
pretty nearly bankrupted the shows to feed them. We had eighty with the
Barnum circus, and finally Mr. Barnum came to me and said that he had
purchased a Sacred White Elephant and told me to start giving it
publicity. Of course, I didn't know anything about that particular kind
of elephant, but as I a