A Bad Idea From Start to Finish: Ultra-Lux in Tiger Killing, Denigrating Even a Filthy Sport

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 413

The title of this lithograph--which appeared in the 27 October 1907 issue of The Illustrated London News--is "Tigers Shot While You Wait in Luxury, Ranji's Latest Wonder", and described transporting the Club Room into the wild for blood sport.   I don't think I've ever encountered that phrase before, "tigers shot while you wait in luxury".   The shooting was done from the portable luxo-car that we see in the upper left corner, which would've been transported, probably by a team of humans, into the depths of teh jungle, or at least deep enough for a tiger to be enticed in towards the hunting shed (with promises of meat scents and such?)
The abomination was made for the sporting whims of Prince Ranjinisnhi ("the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar").  The shed looks to be about 16x8x8 and had a kitchen, drawing room, and "bathroom and lavatory", all "decorated in the Queen Anne style, with somewhat severe oak paneling on the walls, relieved with ormolu appliques...", with nothing but the finest decorating everything else.  The boredom for the Prince was further relieved with portholes for shooting whatever, so that there needn't be any cause for going outside. This is just wrong on every level.

Comments

[Jeff]

That would make a great writing shed. Or some kind of strange back-edge carnival attraction, the kind that teenage boys get chased away from.

[John F. Ptak]

Jeff: Patti has had her eye on a writin' shed for some time now. It's on Freedom Road, going into Morganton (NC, beautiful Burke County), and sits in an unattractive collection of sheds and stone and gravel and other heavy landscaping stuff at a Garden Store. We see it from the road every time we go to Patti's Mom's house. Patti's shed is 8x8x8 or so and is, basically, clear plastic, except for the door, which is solid and green. I've been kidding her abut it for years, how we could set the thing up in the backyard and she could close the door for some "privacy". We her loyal family and other readers could pull up chairs and watch her do The Creative Process from beyond the semi-clear plastic walls.
Somehow we've never actually stopped the car to look at the thing....

[Jeff]

Nice idea. Solar, too. Of course, you know of George Bernard Shaw's writing shed, also solar in its way:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyshield/3025070643/
http://tinyurl.com/54qagq

[John F. Ptak]

AH, yes, its beautiful. Looks like something that I can actually build, or built! I especially like the doorbell!!Also, I think that you can get away with building anything at all and have it look like you found it in the street as long as the whole thing could be rotated.

[patti digh]

That clear shed is still there. I slowed down the last time I passed it on the way past the Taco Bell and the Carbon Plant and there is a tiny little sign stuck to the green door. It says "Hold for Patti Digh."