The elephants of the Bertram Mills circus in London were in a painful fix with fibrositis—thickening of the trunk muscles. A correspondent cabled the news to the U.S. and added a guess. The elephants' affliction, he reported, was doubtless due to lack of peanuts.
That did it. Last week London heard a disturbing rumor that generous Americans and Canadians (possibly influenced by an American jingle circa 1890)* were sending whole shiploads of peanuts. The circus managers had several anxious days. There would surely be a high howl in Britain over giving valuable food to animals when British children could use...
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