Alice the elephant
After getting an e-mail from someone looking into the "roots" of my family (Zschusschen or Zschuschen), I restarted some of my own genealogical research. I've found some interesting stories and accounts of the lives of my ancestors (one of them seems to have fought in the Battle of Waterloo) But none of that is important, because I also stumbled on a (comparatively more recent) article in the Surinam newspaper 'Guiana'. This newspaper was published and printed in 1888 by J.A Zschuschen and contained one of the following articles in the foreign news section:
"Barnum's elephant Alice, who died in the flames in the menagerie at Bridgeport Connecticut, has been dissected. In his stomach were found: 300 penny's, a piece of a penknife, four parasol rings and part of a led tube."
Poor Alice, first she had been used to be the grieving widow of the famous Jumbo (forced to travel with his bones and hide) and then she died in a fire - only to be dissected and her meagre fortune taken :(
"Barnum's elephant Alice, who died in the flames in the menagerie at Bridgeport Connecticut, has been dissected. In his stomach were found: 300 penny's, a piece of a penknife, four parasol rings and part of a led tube."
Poor Alice, first she had been used to be the grieving widow of the famous Jumbo (forced to travel with his bones and hide) and then she died in a fire - only to be dissected and her meagre fortune taken :(