settles the question
as to what shall we do with our ex-presidents. They can be used to scare
rhinos away."

On hearing this story I remembered that the thick-skinned rhino is
sometimes used by cartoonists as a symbol for "the trusts," and the
story seemed doubly appropriate as applied to this particular
ex-president.

Some member of our party then modestly advanced the suggestion that the
colonel might some day be back in the White House again. He laughed and
said that the kaleidoscope never repeats.

"They needn't worry about what to do with this ex-president," he said.
"I have work laid out for a long time ahead."

Another member of our party then told about the Roosevelt act in _The
Follies of 1909_, in one part of which some one asks Kermit (in the
play) where the "ex-president" is. "You mean the 'next president,' don't
you?" says Kermit. When Colonel Roosevelt heard this he was immensely
interested, not so much in the words of the play, but in the fact that
Kermit had been represented on the stage--dramatized, as it were.

And as we left for our own camp the colonel called out: "Now, don't
forget. Just as soon as we all get back to America we'll have a lion
dinner together at my house."

CHAPTER X

ELEPHANT HUNTING NOT AN OCCASION FOR LIGHTSOME MERRYMAKING. FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND ACRES OF FOREST IN WHICH THE KENIA ELEPHANT LIVES, WANDERS AND
BRINGS UP HIS CHILDREN

The peril and excitement of elephant hunting can not be realized by any
one who has known only the big, placid elephants of the circus, or fed
peanuts to a gentle-eyed pachyderm in the park. To the person thus
circumscribed in his outlook, the idea of killing an elephant and
calling it sport is little short of criminal. It would seem like going
out in the barnyard and slaying a friendly old family horse.

That was my point of view before I went to Africa, but later experiences
caused the point of view to shift considerably. If any one thinks that
elephant hunting is an occasion for lightsome merrymaking he had better
not meet the African elephant in the rough. Most people are acquainted
with only the Indian elephant, the kind commonly seen in captivity, and
judge from him that the elephant is a sort of semi-domesticated beast of
burden, like the camel and the ox. Yet the Indian elephant is about as
much like his African brother as a tomcat is like a tiger.

[Photograph: The Hyenas Had Feasted Well]

[Photograph: By courtesy of W.D.