The
newspapers called him "Overshadowing Monarch Mastodon", "Behemoth of
Holy Writ", and "Prodigious Mountain". He was the main event at the
greatest show on earth - Jumbo, at six and a half tons and 12 feet
tall, the biggest elephant anyone had ever seen. Jumbo's mere
presence in the Barnum, Bailey and Hutchinson circus guaranteed an
additional 3000 dollars a day in box office receipts. More of an
exhibit than a performer, Jumbo was simply paraded around the three
rings. But still the people came, just to marvel at the size of this
monster pachyderm.This work
traces Jumbo's capture in East Africa, his life in London Zoo, the
controversy over his sale for 10,000 dollars to American showman
P.T. Barnum, his journey across the Atlantic, his life as the most
famous attraction in Barnum's circus, and his tragic death in a
railway accident in Canada in 1885.
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