THE ELEPHANT AND THE DOUGHNUTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 27

THE ELEPHANT AND THE DOUGHNUTS

Bimbo, big elephant Bimbo, has had to pay a fine. He had to pay in work, of course, for he has no bank deposit, says the Vienna correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor."

His offence was to appropriate too large a share of doughnuts.

The doughnuts weren't really doughnuts, either. At any rate, not the kind mother used to make. In the first place they had no holes in them. They were not so "short" as doughnuts. And Americans would say they aren't so good. But here the Viennese would disagree. Bimbo also would disagree.

The Circus Busch planned to reward 3000 of its young spectators with doughnuts. They were made in due season and transported in a large box to the circus. The delivery boy left the box momentarily in a corner and went to find the circus chief. But a circus is a labyrinth and a chief active, so he was not so easy to find.

In the meantime, Bimbo, Mr. Busch's prize elephant, found the doughnuts. Admiring spectators had often treated him with them and he had no way of kpowing these 3000 were not meant to be his treat. He is the star of the show, and a few tens of pounds of krapfen (what Austrians call dough-

nuts) seemed no extravagant token of appreciation. Why, ordinary opera star get flowers costing fully as much.

So Bimbo, who had been taught to open boxes and doors, raised the corner of the krapfen chest and began to help himself. He kept on, too, until 1400 of these Viennese doughnuts had disappeared. That's £12 worth of sweets.

Mr. Hanmer, who had made them, felt very sad and declared that Mr. Busch of the circus must pay. Mr. Busch replied that the krapfen had never been delivered to him, so he was not responsible, and he refused to pay.

It was plainly up to Bimbo himself. So on two gala evenings when the circus was very full, he marched round and round the ring bearing enormous placards with the words, "Eat Hammerbrot Krapfen. They're good, I know."

Some say he felt very much humiliated by this. The law of the jungle forbids an elephant to be a "sandwich man," it is stated. But certain youngsters, who ought to know, said Bimbo winked at them every time he passed round the ring. For 1400 krapfen they would carry a placard clear to Tipperary, the youngsters asserted.