E-text prepared by Bryan Ness, Graeme Mackreth, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of public domain material generously made available by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 32274-h.htm or 32274-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32274/pg32274-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32274/32274-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through the the Google Books Library Project. See http://books.google.com/books?vid=Oz3E2uZqCbUC&id [Illustration: HISTORY AND RECORDS OF THE ELEPHANT CLUB. With ILLUSTRATIONS BY John McLenan NEW YORK LIVERMORE & RUDD.] The HISTORY AND RECORDS OF THE ELEPHANT CLUB; COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS NOW IN POSSESSION OF THE Zoölogical Society. BY Knight Russ Ockside, M.D., AND Q.K. Philander Doesticks, P.B. New York: Livermore & Rudd, Publishers, 310 Broadway, 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by Livermore & Rudd, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. W.H. Tinson, Stereotyper. Geo. Russell & Co., Printers, 61 Beekman-Street, N.Y. THIS IS THE VERITABLE AND VERACIOUS HISTORY OF THE DOINGS AND MISDOINGS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ELEPHANT CLUB. WITH A MINUTE AND PARTICULAR NARRATIVE OF WHAT THEY DID; TO WHICH IS ADDED A COMPLEX AND ELABORATE DESCRIPTION OF WHAT THEY DIDN'T. CONTAINING ALSO THE EXULTANT RECORD OF THEIR MEMORABLE SUCCESS IN EVENTUALLY OBTAINING, EACH AND EVERY ONE, A SIGHT OF THE ENTIRE AND UNADULTERATED ANIMAL, FROM THE PRIMITIVE HAIR ON HIS ATTENUATED PROBOSCIS, TO THE LAST KINK OF HIS SYMMETRICAL TAIL. COMPILED BY ME, KNIGHT RUSS OCKSIDE, M.D., AND ME, Q.K. PHILANDER DOESTICKS, P.B. PREFACE. This book has been written by the Authors, and printed by the Publishers, in the hope that it may be purchased by the Public. If it proves to be a failure, the responsibility must rest with the People who don't buy it. CONTENTS. HOW THEY MET. PAGE What there wasn't--What there was--A fancied recognition--Singular coincidences--Preamble and resolution--A third party--A fourth party--Accusation of petty larceny--Satisfactory explanation--Spirits in the closet--A mysterious letter--Alarm of Boggs--More mystery--A murder anticipated--The reason why--A perplexing predicament--A philanthropist discovered--A general embrace--An astonishing statement 11 HOW THE CLUB ORGANIZED.