CHAPTER VII.
JUMBO’S DEEP GRIEF ON PARTING WITH HIS WIFE ALICE.
It was one thing to propose and another thing to dispose of the difficulty in the case of parting Jumbo from Alice.
The parting of Uncle Tom from his negro wife, down in “Old Kentucky,” when he was sold in the slave-market, was nothing to it.
I never thought it would be such a job. However, it had to be done. I had given my word—and that is my bond—and Jumbo and I always carry out that principle whatever the cost.
Mr. P. T. Barnum, “the greatest showman on earth,” had made arrangements, and had promised to exhibit Jumbo to the Americans.
We took steps to tear those poor slaves apart, and it was no small matter, and I want you, my readers, to let me tell you my views on this subject:
When the time came for sundering Jumbo and Alice, the actions of Alice, in the movements of her body and the horrible groans, were something awful to listen to. And I assure you that no parent, seeing his son and daughter sold to separate owners in the slave-market of South Carolina, and torn apart, one to go to one place and the other to another, could have suffered more heart-rending pain and fear than my soul underwent on that occasion.
The noise of the groans of Alice was at times of a wailing, plaintive, rather musical kind. Then it would sound like the roar of thunder, and at times was as quick and successive as its peals. She tore about the stable in which she was confined, and dashed herself against its sides, till we expected every minute she would break loose and follow us. If she had, we should have had a nice time of it to separate them again. I hold that Jumbo and Alice could walk this earth in company and hold their own, and even with my friendly and familiar voice, I question, without great strength and force, whether they could have been separated again. Certainly they could not have been parted without injury to them.
We ultimately got Jumbo away from her, and for a considerable time after we left, poor Alice was a very dejected and despondent animal; she has never been the same since, and she never will be until I take her husband, Jumbo, back to her, which I purpose by God’s help doing, as well for the peace of my own mind as the pleasure and satisfaction of the two sweethearts. I can then, I hope, finish my bachelor life in company with my two “little” pets. If this cannot be done, I shall insist upon the only other alternative, that is, to bring Alice over to the American Continent, and so reunite them on American soil.