THE CREATURE lN THE SHOP
My name is Dr Frederick Treves. 1 am a doctor at the London Hospital. One day in 1884, 1 saw a picture in the window of a shop near the hospital. 1 stopped in front of the shop and looked at the picture. At first 1 felt interested, then 1 felt angry, then afraid. It was a horrible, ugly picture. There was a man in the picture,
but he did not look like you and me. He did not look like a man. He looked like an elephant.
1 read the writing under the picture. Ir said:
Come in and see the Elephant Man. Two pence.
1 opened the door and went in.
There was a man in the shop. He was a dirty man in an old coat with a cigarette in his mouth. 'What do you
want?' he asked.
'l'd like to see the elephant man, please,' 1 said.
The man looked at me angrily. 'Well, you can't,' he said. 'The shop's closing now. You can come back
tomorrow.'