.
Elephants are smarter than many of the other creatures. They can
reason from cause to effect. This I know, for one dark, rainy night
when we were stuck in the mud trying to get off the lot at Columbus,
old Canhead Fortney was using two of the smaller Asiatics to shove the
big cages out of the mire. Jerry Quiggle had six horses on a chain and
was surging away to get the wagons out to the pavement. Canhead moved
the little elephants around back of the big rhinoceros cage and fixed
the head-pads for the big shove. But they didn't shove. Canhead bawled
and fussed around in the dark and thought he had a mutiny on his
hands. Presently he heard Jerry, up in front, hooking on the chain and
clucking to the horses. Then the little Asiatics, without further
orders, bent to their task and the big cage rolled out to the hard
surface. Canhead apologized for his error. He stopped at a hydrant and
washed the mud off the elephants' legs and gave 'em an extra feed.

"But of all the animals under training, I think seals are the
smartest. They are uncanny in their reasoning. They do unexpected
things. When seals are associated with human beings as long as dogs
they will speak our language and do it correctly. I think seals like
to tour the country in the hope that some day they can go back to the
ocean, to the rocks and cliffs and slides, to tell the other seals
just how dumb we humans are.

"And that's about all, my friends. I realize that my rambling remarks
are poor pay for the splendid little horse I got. Really, if my time
and talk is the value of exchange, I would be here for a week, telling
of the tragedies and comedies I've seen in this vast, fast-moving
business. I could tell of the big blow-down we had in Texas; of the
train wreck in the Carolinas; of the near elephant stampede we had
when the woman raised her parasol as the parade was forming in
Frankfort. And to show how closely tragedy and comedy are interwoven,
I'll ring down the final curtain by telling this incident.

"At Toledo, the Grand Entry was forming for the night performance. In
the menagerie tent the animals, chariots, Roman soldiers, and
attendants were being lined up for the Grand March. In the lineup were
two hippopotamuses. It was a new feature, having these big brutes free
and unrestrained in a parade. Just as the march started, old Fisheye
Gleason, a seasoned old retainer who cleaned out cages, fed the
animals, and who claimed he was with Noah when he la