The Stolen White Elephant

“You know, in Siam the royal white elephant is very important. It is sacred to kings, and only kings can have a white elephant. And white elephants are more important than the king.
Very well... five years ago... (p. 11)

    A man who is trying to deliver a white elephant gets a phone call in the middle of the night: the white elephant has been stolen. He hurries to New York City and goes to the headquarters of the police force. He tells the chief of the force, Inspector Blunt, everything. Inspector Blunt asks him to describe the elephant. Inspector Blunt sends his policemen to look for the elephant and the thieves. Messages begin to come into the telegraphic machine. A large number of telegrams come in from detectives who are following clues throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The detectives sends their reports every hour. Each one is following the elephant, but no one finds it. After two weeks the elephant is lost. He must have found a place to hide during the fog. News about the elephant stops. Two weeks after the elephant’s disappearance, Inspector Blunt suggests that he raise the reward. 

　　In the basement, Inspector Blunt falls over a large object. When Inspector Blunt comes back his eyes are happy. The man lifts a candle and walks down into the basement of the building. it is dark and frightening and there is a very bad smell. He feels sick and wants to go back. They found a dead white elephant. Naturally the chief is the hero and his happiness is complete. The man is happy for the Inspector although now the man is a homeless beggar, his elephant is dead, and he has no job. 

We connect this story with the police unreliability in Japan. In 2019, the police arrested the wrong girl, and detained her for 12 years. This was due to a messy police investigation. This is the same reason why the elephant wasn't found for a long time in this story.

Even now, police are arresting the wrong criminals, we wondered if there would have been many arrests for unclear testimony due to various interests and lack of evidence in the cases at that time. We felt the irony for police by the author Mark Twain here.

Mark Twain is a famous writer. If you haven’t known him ever, it’s the chance to read his work by now. Besides, this is a shorter story in his works, so even if you don’t like long book, it doesn’t matter.

🔽See here for more details about this book

"The Stolen White Elephant" is a short story written by Mark Twain

・Mark Twain – Twain in 1907 ・ Samuel Clemens, age 15

and published in 1882 by James R. Osgood.

In this detective

・Detective fiction – Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) ・Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)

・Mystery fiction – Mystery, 1934 mystery fiction magazine cover ・Novels by Agatha Christie

a Siamese white elephant,

・White elephant (animal) – A royal white elephant ・A white elephant in Naypyidaw, Myanmar

en route from Siam to Britain as a gift to the Queen, disappears in New Jersey; the local police department goes into high gear to solve the mystery but it all comes to a tragic end.
The main characters of the story include:

Mark Twain, who functions as the initial speaker and author of the story.

An elderly gentleman, an Englishman in the British civil service in India, who told the story to Twain during a train ride and is in charge of transporting the white elephant.

Level 3: Stolen White Elephant, The 著者 : MarkTwain ABAX 発売日 : 2007-02-01 ブクログでレビューを見る»

Christmas Carol

"Who are you?" asked Scrooge, calmy.

"Ask me who I was."

"Who were you then?" said Scrooge.

"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." (P.29)


　　　First of this story, Merely was dead. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Scrooge and he were business partners for years. Scrooge was his only friend and his only mourner. Scrooge was a cold, greedy, mean, old man! Nobody ever stopped Scrooge in the street to say, “My dear Scrooge, how are you?” And dogs ran away from him. Once upon a time, on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge sat in his office. It was a cold, foggy day. He didn't celebrate Christmas and he was invited to a Christmas party by his nephew, but he didn’t want to go. Scrooge lived in Jacob Marley’s old apartment. When Scrooge put his key in the lock, he saw Marley’s face instead of the knocker. And it became a knocker again. He went to his door. Then, there was Marley, dragging a chain. Scrooge asked him why he was carrying that chain. He answered it’s that I made in life. And more he said that I’m here tonight to warn you. You can still escape my fate. I’m giving you a chance. And three ghosts will come and haunt you. After that, Scrooge was very tired so he went straight to bed. When Scrooge woke up, it was very dark. Scrooge suddenly remembered the ghost come. He decided to lie awake until after one o’clock. The first ghost came to him, the ghost of Christmas past took his hand and flew with him over London. It first showed Scrooge his old boarding school, where he stayed alone, but for his books, while his schoolmates returned to their homes for the Christmas holidays. The second one came to him; he is the ghost of Christmas present. It showed Scrooge visions of the world on Christmas Day, including heart-warming scenes of celebration at the homes of Bob Crotchet and Scrooge’s nephew. The third one came to him. It showed Scrooge a vision of his unmourned death in the near future, as well as the death of Tiny Tim. He was really scared to see things shown by the three ghosts. Finally, he changed his actions to everyone and raised Bob’s payment and helped pay for Tim’s care. He became a good man, and everyone came like to him. Many people said, “Mr Scrooge knows how to celebrate Christmas, better than any other man on earth.” He is a really good man, at last.
　　　We focused about the main character of this story, Scrooge.
At first, he is a very bad man; he is mean to everyone. However, since his only friend, Marley, died, that started to change. After his dead, Marley came up to Scrooge as a ghost. He was dragging a chain. He said it’s a thing to make his life. He was scared to hear that. And also Marley said, “Three ghost will come here.” It made him more scared.
　　　As he said, three ghosts came. The first ghost showed him the old memories. The second one showed him someone’s happy Christmas Day. The third one showed him his future if he keeps going like this. All of them told him of the importance of connecting with many people kindly. He thought his past actions are so bad. And he wanted to change by now.
　　　Finally, he changed his actions to everyone and raised Bob’s payment and helped Tim’s care. He became a good man, and everyone came to like him. Many people said, “Mr Scrooge knows how to celebrate Christmas, better than any other man on earth.” He is a really good man, at last.
　　　I thought Scrooge is a really kind man in actual, but nobody cared about him, and he became so. He has a heart to celebrate Christmas with everyone at the first. He was stubborn over about little thing as nobody is his place and no invitation card was given him. From here, I think that I always should be honest. Because saying nothing is same as no thinking. If I have something what I want to say, I should say without fear. I feel that it’s the best way to live happy with everyone.


VOCABULARY
p6~7
carol: a song sung at Christmas time
relevant: important
oppressed: people who are not free or who haven't got the same rights as others
p13
chief mourner: friend or relative of the dead person
clergyman: religious leader
frost: covering of ice
froze: stop moving because of the cold
thaw: make ice melt
p14
cell: very small room, like a prison
poured in: a lot came in quickly
p16~p17
humbug: hypocrite
charitable: when you help others
stake: wooden stick with a sharped like a knife
p20~p21
frowned: looked angry
in operation: working; in use
to raise money: collect money for a person or thing
p22
grew thicker: there was more fog
shivering shaking with cold
p24~25
at long last: finally
rundown: old and in bad condition
feel his way: touch in order to be sure of the way
knocker: metal object on a door
p26~27
echoed: heard again and again
cravat: neck tie men wore in the past
dressing-gown: long piece of clothing worn over night clothes
gruel: food which poor people ate
barrels: large round containers for food or liquid
clanking: when two metal objects hit each other
p29
jaws: bones
mercy: forgiveness and understanding
to his horror: he was shocked
p30~31
shadowy: like a ghost
welfare: good health and happiness
p32~33
flung:threw
floated: moved slowly through air
strikes: sound of a clock
wide open: completely open
pleaded: asked in a strong and serious way
p34~35
waistcoat: jacket without sleeves
beamed: shone; came out of
flew open: opened quickly and suddenly
jet: strong, thin line
wrinkles: lines on people’s faces showing age
p39
rubbed his hands: moved his hands together
p40
clear away: make space; tidy up
fiddler: person who plays the violin
p49
bordered with: at the borders/ends
shoveling away: clearing
wreath: circle of flowers worn in the head
p50~51
bless: ask for God’s protection, happiness or good fortune
threadbare: thin and old clothes
p55
for your sake: for you; for your good
rebuke: criticism
indignantly: shocked and angrily
p59
campaigned: worked to make people aware of something
p60
solemn: serious and unhappy-looking
yet to come:in the future

FAMILY TREE

A Christmas Carol, Class Set: Helbling Readers Red Series / Level 3 (A2) 著者 : CharlesDickens Helbling Verlag GmbH 発売日 : 2008-01-01 ブクログでレビューを見る»

The New Zealand File

Twelve hours later Munro’s plane arrived at Christchurch airport. Munro watched out of the window as the plane moved across to the airport buildings. Fiji was a wonderful place, but it was good to get back to work. (P. 7)

This is the story in the New Zealand as the title of this book. Munro is a spy. He was in vacation, but he was called by his boss and started the mission. On the way of that, he didn’t know why, but he was targeted by someone. Besides, someone knew the secret information of his team, he  knew the someone is his one of spy’s company. Could he come home and know the someone?


This is the spy’s story. It made me feel a few nervous and a thrilling. He was chased many times, but when the situation that he almost got caught the traitor come, I felt “Would he be caught this time finally..?” In the middle of this story, he met the good woman, Lisa. She isn’t spy, but she gave him the help to escape from the someone and tried to think why with him. I thought she is really kind and has gently heart. If she wasn’t there, he would be worse place than now, I felt.
At last, he could be safe and you could know why and how the someone do so.
If you want to know, let’s read this book.

The New Zealand File Level 2 Elementary/Lower-intermediate (Cambridge English Readers) 著者 : RichardMacAndrew Cambridge University Press 発売日 : 2009-11-05 ブクログでレビューを見る»

BAD COMPANY

Webb drank some of his orange juice and looked at Shepherd. She really wasn’t the usual kind of police inspector. (P. 48)

This is the story of guessing the murder.
Claudia Engel were the staff of the Grand Hotel. However, she was disliked everyone who works with her. Then, she was killed by someone...
During the investigation, Inspector Shepherd guessed four people could be the killer.
The four name are Mr McNab, Ms Engel’s boss, Mr Chowdury, and Ms Johnson. All of them disliked her, so all should say the evidence which they weren’t do that.
Could Shepherd find the murderer?


      There is the most impression for me in this story. It’s the growth of Webb who is newcomer of inspector Shepherd’s office. At first, he was really bad at investigation. For example, though he met the one of suspect, he made him get back home. It’s impossible thing in the investigation place, but the element like this made me so fun to read. At last, he made a really important investigation and it became the clue of the arrest. Let’s check this point when you read this.
      I was harassed when Shepherd was fool for the suspect. Actually, she had no evidence for arrest,  but she said as she knows all. When I realized this, I was really excited. If you want to guess the criminal and solve the mystery, let’s try to read this.

Bad Company Level 2 Elementary/Lower-intermediate (Cambridge English Readers) 著者 : RichardMacAndrew Cambridge University Press 発売日 : 2011-03-24 ブクログでレビューを見る»

David and the Great Detective

It’s the first day of summer.The twenty-first of June, like so many days of the year in England, is often cloudy, or wet, or windy, or ‘not too bad. (P.11)

This is the story of the dreamer David. He is called so by his classmates.
Because he is a really oversleep boy, he sometimes makes a mistake to enter the wrong classroom, so he had been ridiculed by his classmates.
One day, his friend, Jack’s bike was stolen by someone. Jack was also bullying him, but David couldn’t leave him alone. He started to search the thief with Jack.


I focused on two points in this story.
First, after reading this, I felt that my mind is full of courage. It takes a lot of courage to take action for friends, but the encouragement of David and everyone helped him. It’s so encouraged me.
At first, David was bullied by his classmates, but I thought he was a little responsible for this. Because, he didn’t try to get up in the morning, and he didn’t even check where he entered. He may be weak in the morning, but I think he could make some effort to avoid bullying.
Second, the illustrations in this book are so fun. Sometimes, the graphic became like a cartoon. It  makes sense and the imagination of family conversations and movements has become clearly and richly. If you want to get some courage, or have some interesting for cartoon, let’s read this. You can read it easier than commonly books.

David and the Great Detective, mit 1 Audio-CD: Helbling Readers Red Series / Level 1 (A1) 著者 : MartynHobbs Helbling Verlag GmbH 発売日 : 2019-01-01 ブクログでレビューを見る»

Logan's Choice

Jenny Logan was an inspector in the Edinburgh Police. The phone often woke her at night. She got out of bed and dressed quickly in a blue suit. She looked at herself in the mirror and decided that her short brown hair looked all right. (P.5)

There is a dead of Alex Maclennan. She searched for the reason of his dead.
On the way, she found any points of distrust...
Then, Logan’s guessing starts.

This is the series of the inspector Logan. I sometimes read this series.
This book is also interesting for me.
I always feel that the reasoning is difficult when I read this series of the stories.
It’s normal thing that the criminal try to hide the trace of the crime, so the inspectors always have a hard time. Actually, it’s so difficult to arrest the true criminals, and sometimes they arrest wrong criminals. It’s sad thing. But Logan always search really in detail and arrests the true criminals, so I can feel good and refreshment after reading.
If you want to enjoy the guessing the criminal and feel good after reading, let’s read this book!

Logan's Choice(Cambridge English Readers:Level2) 著者 : RichardMacAndrew Cambridge University Press 発売日 : 2001-03-22 ブクログでレビューを見る»

Dead Cold

Well, some days I think why wasn't I there in front? Why didn't I die? Then some days I think why didn't I stop Lang, stop him from shooting Scott? (p.26)

This is the story about detective Flick.

She lost her partner two months ago. Then, she heard the incident which the girl is killed. During the investigation, she reminded her lost partner. Why he was killed, she thought sometimes.

At the last, she get the key to get the criminal. The girl had a information of crime and she was aimed.

I think this story's point is her mind.

She thinks about her partner during the investigation. Like her partner, the girl's dead is no need. I'm really sad while I read this. Her delicate investigation make things clear. At the back of her dead, there is like land rights issues. I feel excited reading this.

If you have an interest, let's read this!

Dead Cold Level 2 (Cambridge English Readers) 著者 : SueLeather Cambridge University Press 発売日 : 2007-01-18 ブクログでレビューを見る»