From Richard Reynolds #1

!cid_X_MA1_1273448932@aol, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. White elephant Toung Taloung was featured on the Barnum circus in USA in 1884 and 1885. P. T. Barnum secured the animal from Burma in late 1883 at great cost and spent another fortune in publicizing it. Alas, the unsophisticated public of that day was looking for an alabaster white elephant which, as you know, is not the case with albino elephants. Barnum's great rival, the Philadelphia showman Adam Forepaugh (Forbach), promoted a competing white elephant in 1884 as competition to Barnum's animal. Forepaugh called it the "Light of Asia." Its skin had been cosmetically treated to give off the desired alabaster. The crafty old German thought that a really "white" elephant would give his Adam Forepaugh Circus an edge over his hated rival Barnum [The Forepaugh show of the 1880s was the equal of Barnum's in both its menagerie and the arenic displays.] However, the scheme was exposed. The Forepaugh elephant in question had been imported into England in July 1883 by the animal dealer William Cross of Liverpool. Cross' keeper, one George Gillespie, testified that he had looked after the animal since its arrival in Liverpool. It was an ordinary young male Asian elephant. Cross sold it to Forepaugh just before Christmas, 1883. The cosmetics were administered by Gillespie on instruction from Forepaugh's agent shortly before the animal left England for USA in March 1884. [See The New York Times, April 11, 1884.] This Barnum vs. Forepaugh episode was known as the Great White Elephant War and the claims and counter-claims occupied the press for weeks. Here is one of Forepaupgh's posters claiming that his animal was genuine while Barnum's was a fake - - Barnum's "real" royal white elephant was indeed shown at the London zoo, beginning on or about January 20, 1884 and concluding on or about March 16, 1884 when it was shipped to New York for Barnum's circus. Here is a drawing of Toung Taloung from the Scientific American, Supplement, New York, March 8, 1884, after the London Graphic. The sketch (a good one) was seemingly done while the animal was at Regent's Park. This same illustration may be seen at the on-line Elephants Encyclopedia, produced by the European Elephant Keepers and Managers Association in which Dan Koelh is a principal.