The Emperor's Elephant (1950s)

[Music] have you ever sat in a coffee house house and rested for a while from the labors of the day with the aroma of coffee around you and a waiter nearby to keep all the cups filled with a clock on the wall ticking away the minutes and then from outside you hear the muted motor of a passing car The Cry of a street vendor and the cheers of children at play you hear men like yourself discussing the news in bits and snatches leaders of countries in this part of the world are preparing for the next meeting of our Treaty Organization sometimes the voices are raised and harsh why do our governments have to warn us about making mutual defense agreements and sometimes you hear wise words like those of the shake who often helps his friends understand Problems by telling them the old stories of nasar H come now Hamid perhaps our governments enter treaty organizations because they know of a danger that confronts us perhaps they have seen a war elephant headed in our Direction our country isn't in any danger we don't have to make any preparations or treaties offende what did you mean by saying that the threat to our country might be like a war elephant headed in our Direction I was thinking of a famous old story Boran about the time when nasarudin HOA was urging all his friends to unite against a common enemy and what happened when they did not choose to listen there was a time in his long and busy life when nasarudin hoer thought he would try to sell pickles that is why one sunny day found him outside the Great Gate of The Emperor's Palace calling out the wonders of his Pickle bar but every place that nasar Adine stopped to call out his Wares his donkey started to bra so loudly that no one heard the haer's call finally the hoer turned to his donkey who is selling the pickles you or I just at that moment a party of The Emperor's guards appeared at the palace gate with an official announcement and the haer's first thought was to hide his Barrel before all his pickles were sampled by Royal non-paying customers the official announcement was a warning that the emperor's most dangerous war elephant had escaped escaped from its Keepers and was now at large in the [Music] countryside furthermore the public should be warned that this war elephant can kill a man at sight [Music] as soon as he got home nasuren told his friends of the terrible danger that was on the loose but most of the villagers were not even sure what an elephant was so they could not share the haer's worry about the harm a fierce war elephant could do so each one refused to stop his everyday activities or to think about protecting the village [Music] [Music] ah but the war elephant did come to the hoa's village and since every man alone was helpless against the Beast and no Mutual defense had been prepared against it the villagers were completely conquered [Music] [Music] in vain they tried to live their lives as they used to but now they were at the mercy of The Emperor's elephant [Music] [Applause] [Music] in time things got so bad in the village that the hotus friends risked their lives to gather together and make plans nasar Adine assured them that while each could do nothing alone against such an enemy together they might have a chance [Music] and so the day came in the village when the war elephant was opposed from all directions at once with the combined wit and resources of many angry [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] men and the day followed not long after when the emperor's elephant went back to the Palace held in check by many ropes any one of which he might have snapped like a straw but allog together holding him in line like the meekest [Music] lamb and so it is today when people or countries make plans together for their Mutual defense each one of them is prot protected by the strength of all against the evils and dangers of the world nasaden HOA believe this it is something to think about [Music]