Prince Louis did not possess the
self-denial requisite for it. So he continued his life devoted to
purely external things and meanwhile was as much bored as Jonah in the
whale. He undertook long journeys and disappeared for six months,
during which he hunted tigers in India and hippopotami in the Blue
Nile. When he returned home and was questioned at the club about his
experiences and whether he had been entertained, he answered with a
shrug of the shoulders.
"Entertained? As if one could be in this vale of tears! There really
is nothing remarkable about a tiger-hunt. The danger and excitement
concern the poor devils of Hindoos, who rouse the game. I sat in my
howdah on a very quiet elephant and fired as if I were shooting at a
target. Buy some big cats from Asia or Africa, put them into a cage in
your park, and shoot till you kill them. It is about the same thing.
True, the scenic effects are less glaring, there are fewer
supernumeraries, and there is not so much shrieking and struggling on
the stage. But that seems to me rather an advantage, and one doesn't
have the heat and the snakes.
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