Barnum's Book #9

Barnum-9, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Barnum devotes a chapter to Jumbo and Toung Taloung, his sacred white elephant. While obviously very proud to talk about Jumbo, Barnum was less so about Toung Taloung: “Toung Taloung, the famous white elephant, which I brought from Burmah (sic), cost me $200,000. Like the public, I was greatly disappointed in him. He was as genuine a white elephant as ever existed, but, in fact, there was never such an animal known. The white spots are simply diseased blotches. My white elephant was burned to death at Bridgeport in November, 1887, and I can’t say that I grieved much over his loss.”