“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:
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.
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ABAX
発売日 : 2007-02-01
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