HACKALIAH AND OLD BET. 9 



first elephant into these U-nlted States — old 

 Bet ; of course you have heard of old Bet ? " 



*' No, I have not." 



" What, never heard of old Bet ! Well, sir, 

 you are pretty well along in life. Where have 

 you been all your days ? " 



I told him I had not spent them all in West- 

 chester County. 



" I should rather think not," replied the land- 

 lord, " or else you'd have heard of Hackaliah 

 Bayley and old Bet. Right here, from this 

 very spot, he started the first show in this 

 country. Right around here is where they 

 breed and winter wild animals to this day. 

 Folks round here have grown rich out of the 

 show business. There's men in this town that 

 have been to Asia and Africa to get animals ; 

 and Bayley's big circus (he was old Hackaliah's 

 son) grew up out from the small beginning 

 when Hackaliah imported old Bet, and that 

 wasn't more than sixty or seventy years ago. 

 Yes, sir; Hackaliah began on that one she- 

 elephant. He and a boy were all the company. 

 They travelled nights and showed daytimes. 

 Old Bet — she knew just how much every bridge 

 in the country would bear before she put her 

 foot on it. Bimeby they got a cage of monkeys 



