110 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
paper on which to write out the agreement, and so, 
since I didn’t want him to change his mind, I paid 
him $30 for one month, writing the receipt in my 
pith helmet. He signed in my hat; then we pasted 
a stamp in it and canceled the stamp by writing the 
date across it. 
While Ali and my coolie boy were getting the 
merry-go-round unloaded, I collected a gang of 
laborers and an engineer. All that day we worked 
at uncrating the merry-go-round and putting it 
together. The natives stood around, watching us 
and speculating as to what this strange new thing 
could possibly be. The merry-go-round ran on 
wheels on a track and the horses were connected 
with eccentrics, which worked them up and down; 
a good loud organ was connected by a belt with one 
of the wheels. The merry-go-round carried fifty- 
six people. 
I began business on the Chinese New Year’s Day. 
The merry-go-round was the sensation of Penang. 
The crowds flocked to see it, and the natives lined 
up for several hundred yards, each with his dime in 
his hand, waiting for his turn. We were so busy 
that I could not even go to the hotel for a meal; 
the brassy organ of the merry-go-round shrieked 
from early in the morning until late at night. In 
two days, I took in $1,500 Mexican. 
On the third day the merchant from whom I had 
rented the lot announced that he was going to build 
a fence around it and charge two cents for the priv- 
