“Synchronized,” repeated the captain.
“Yes, that’s it, whativer it is,” said Mike.
The adventures of a trained elephant that escaped in the streets of New York furnished a reporter on the Sun with an opportunity for a humorous animal story that he took every advantage of, as is seen in the following result:
An East Indian elephant weighing a couple of tons or so and bearing the Anglo-Saxon name of Nellie, moved into the tenement house at 336 East Thirty-fourth street early yesterday morning carrying her trunk with her. At or about the same hour most of the other tenants of the house moved out. Shortly afterward the tenants of the house at 338 followed suit, and it was only a few moments later that the tenants in 340 emulated the example of their neighbors in 336 and 338.
Andrew Diehl, the owner of the tenement, did not welcome Nellie with any enthusiasm. He said later that he did not cater to elephants, and anyhow all the flats in his house were occupied. He seemed a bit peevish about the whole affair, apparently having conceived the idea that if it got around the neighborhood that he made a practice of entertaining elephants unawares it might prejudice his house in the eyes of prospective tenants.
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In short, he spoke quite sharply about the matter, did Mr. Andrew Diehl. But several thousand persons who saw Nellie moving in at 336 appeared to be having a really good time.
Before Nellie moved into 336, and thence through the backyard fence into 338, and thence through another backyard fence into 340, her place of residence was quite a number of blocks further uptown. But she is hard to suit with regard to her surroundings. In fact, before she consented to move into 336, 338 and 340 she insisted on making a number of extensive alterations.
Nellie’s uptown residence was the Hippodrome. She wasn’t exactly an old resident there either, the janitor says, for she moved in there no longer ago than Friday morning, coming directly from the steamship Georgic on the recommendation of a travelling companion, one Alfredo Rossi, who told her that it was a good place to live and that he thought that between them they could do themselves some good there in the way of making a living. This sounded pretty good to Nellie, and as soon as they had hoisted her out of the Georgic’s hold in an enormous sling and deposited her on the island of Manhattan, she started directly for the Hippodrome on Prof. Rossi’s recommendation. Besides, Prof. Rossi had a good sharp goad and some disposition to use it.
In addition to Prof. Rossi, Nellie’s companions of the voyage included three more elephants, Petie, Rosa and Pierrette. Prof. Rossi having some influence with them too, they also went along to board with Nellie at the Hippodrome. The new tenants behaved themselves so admirably at first that the neighbors had no complaints whatsoever to make.