the treaty contained a
clause providing that any so-called white elephants which might be
captured in the ceded territory should be considered the property of
the King of Siam and delivered to him forthwith. A number of years ago,
a traveling show known as Wilson's English Circus, gave a number of
exhibitions in Bangkok, which were attended by the King, the nobility,
and members of the European colony. When the proprietor saw that the
popular interest in his exhibition was beginning to wear off, he
distributed broadcast handbills announcing that at the next performance
"a genuine white elephant" would take part in the exhibition. Public
curiosity was reawakened and that evening the circus was crowded. After
the usual bareback riding, in which the Siamese were treated to the
sight of European women in pink tights and tulle skirts pirouetting on
the backs of cantering Percherons, two clowns burst into the ring.

"Hey, you!" bawled one of them, "Have you seen the white elephant?"

"Sure, I have," was the response. "The King has a stable full of them."

"Oh, no, he ain't," shouted the first fun-maker. "The King ain't got
any _white_ elephants. His are all gray ones. I'll show you the only
genuine white elephant in the world," whereupon a small elephant, as
snowy as repeated coats of whitewash could make it, ambled into the
ring. Though a suppressed titter ran through the more sophisticated
portion of the audience when it was observed that the ridiculous
looking animal left white marks on everything it touched, it was quite
apparent that the bulk of the spectators resented fun being made of an
animal which they had been taught to consider sacred, certain of the
more devout asserting that the sacrilegious performance would call down
the wrath of Buddha. Their prophecies proved to be well founded, for
the "white" elephant died at sea a few days later--as the result, it
was hinted, of poison put in its food by the Siamese priests and Wilson
himself, who had been suffering from dysentery, died the day after he
landed at Singapore.

Being a young nation, so far as the adoption of Western methods are
concerned, the Siamese are extremely sensitive, being almost
pathetically eager to win the good opinion of the Occidental world.
Thus, upon Siam's entry into the Great War (perhaps you were not aware
that the little kingdom equipped and sent to France an expeditionary
force composed of aviation, ambulance and motor units, thus bei