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Show ASTONISHED BY THE GIRAFFE. Frenchmen Were Slow to Admit Existence Ex-istence of tho Animal. Dr. Johnson, as ls well known, refused re-fused for many months to believe In the Lisbon earthquake, and Parisians formerly were ju6t as skeptical as to the existence of the giraffe, a new specimen of which had just been addod to the Jardin des Plantes. The earliest specimen of these gentle creatures crea-tures was seen in Paris in the reign of Louis XVI. We learn from a French contemporary that the giraffe was first heard of In 1787, when it was described de-scribed by a Frenchman named Levall-lant, Levall-lant, who had journeyed in the lands of the Hottentots and Kaffirs. When the explorer referred to tho animals with the long necks he was looked upon as a Munchausen and told that ho was such in not the politest language. lan-guage. It was only when some living specimens arrived in tho French capital cap-ital that Levalllant's reputation for veracity was re-established, and then the animals for a long time formed the sensation of Paris, not only among the multitude, but in all scientific circles. |