Hi and welcome to ‘a handful of history’, my fortnightly sharing of real-life stories from around the world. All the narratives I pick are rooted in history one way or another, yet I feel that most of them carry themes and happenings that seem very present day-like. I create this blog out of love and curiosity for the field of human history and culture, and I’m happy that you find it interesting too. My blog and newsletters are free; if you want to help me keep it going, please join my newsletter. THANK YOU. Thanks for being here - let's dive in. Enjoy! Majken xx
Old Bet
Around 1806, Hachaliah Bailey, a farmer in Somers, New York, took his cattle to New York City to sell them. An elephant caught Bailey's eye near the slaughterhouse business, which was often conducted at the Bull’s Head Tavern in lower Manhattan. The elephant had been brought to the US only a couple of years before, and it was one of the first elephants ever to arrive in the country. Bailey decided to buy her. Some say that he intended to use the elephant as a beast of burden to help plough his farm. Others think he simply saw the possibility of exhibiting her.
Anyway, on his way back to Somers, Bailey saw that the elephant, who was later named Old Bet, attracted a lot of attention. Soon, he started offering viewings of the giant animal, charging 25 cents from everyone who wanted to see her. From here, it didn’t take long before Bailey started taking Old Bet to other towns. Moving from place to place, he decided to travel at night so that people along the road would not get a free look. Once he arrived at a new location, he rented a barn to keep Bet out of sight. Then he advertised that people should come to see her.
The Old Bet menagerie continued for some years; however, in 1816, the performances came to a brutal end. Bailey and Bet were touring as usual, and one day after doing a show in Alfred in Maine, the local farmer Daniel Davis stopped them on their way out of town. Without any warning, Davis took out a weapon and shot Old Bet, and she died on the spot. Later it was stated that the reason behind Davis’s act was that he found it sinful for poor people to spend money to see an elephant. Locals of the time describe Davis as a “miserable vagabond,” in other words, he may have just been a troubled soul.
In 1821, Bailey sold Old Bet’s remains, and the next record of her is of being on display is in the American Museum in New York City. Bailey then invested in building a hotel, and four years later, in 1825, the “Elephant Hotel” was finished. In the front of the building, Bailey erected a tall granite pole with a wooden statue of Old Bet atop it. Today the Elephant Hotel serves as the town hall in Somers.
In the beautifully made video above, the US animator Lynn Tomlinson tells Old Bet’s tale from the imagined perspective of the farmer’s dog. Also, it is a more broadly story of the tragic centuries-long history of exotic animal exploitation for the sake of human entertainment.
Tamám Shud
I’ve been listening to the episode Tamám Shud by History Uncovered podcast. What a drama! In 1948 a man was found dead on a beach in Australia. He had no visible injuries, but the police found that someone had cut all the tags out of his clothing when taking a closer look. Most puzzling perhaps was a tiny slip that had been sewed into a hidden pocket in his trousers. It read “Tamám Shud”, which - the police later figured out - is Persian for "it is finished”. The slip of paper was torn from a rare edition of poems by the 12th-century writer Omar Khayyam. Still, this knowledge didn’t bring the investigators closer to solving the mystery. Was the diseased a spy? Or someone’s secret lover? No one has ever figured it out.
Photo: Suitcase and effects, found by detectives at Adelaide railway station (Wiki).
What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years?
Experts from 1901 describe how life will be one hundred years ahead, and it’s pretty entertaining.
“In 1901, the 'Ladies Home Journal' published an article describing the advances predicted to happen in the next hundred years. Flying ships, x-rays, enormous strawberries - the success rate is surprisingly high.”
Yorumlar