The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-07-06 00:00:00

POOR " ROMEO" PASSED AWAY!

An interesting beast has just passed away at Chi-
cago. The New York Herald announces the death at
that town on the Bth ult, of the " celebrated perfor-
ming elephant Romeo, the largest and most valuable
of his species ever brought to America, and mere
fatuous than any who have gone before him." The
occurrence, says the Herald, will excite interest in
almost every city, town, or village in America ; but to
judge by the account given of the career of the deceased,
the news of his death must, we imagine, be received
with come sense of relief. Romeo, it seems, has
killed five keepers since his advent in America,
" besides destroying any number of fences, barns,
garden patches, corn-fields, orchards," Ltc. He
was bought in Calcutta about twenty-five years
ago, having been taken from a brickyard where he was
used in grinding clay. The price paid for him was
10,000 dollars in gold, and he was brought to America
with nine others'. In 18)2, while south of New
Orleans, he killed his keeper known as " Long John,"
whose successor, called " Frenchy." shared the same
fate near Houston, Texas, in 1855. A third keeper,
Stewart 4 raven, was killed in 1860 near Cedar Rapids,
Iowa; the fourth, "Ben Williams," was sent to his
last account at Philadelphia in 1867, and the fifth,
named McDevitt at Ohio, in 1869, completed
the illustrious roll of Itotheo's victims. Although
from the affectionate nature of the animal there
can be no doubt he bitterly mourned the loss of the
keepers whom in his hasty moments he destroyed, yet
his cheerful temperamen, enabled him to survive
sorrows that would ha; crushed more sensitive
elephants; indeed, his pla ulness sometimes exceeded
the limits of convenience. In the winter of 1868 he
alarmed the inhabitants of Chicago by tearing to
pieces the building in whicj he was confined on the site
of the present City HAll. On this occasion a
cannon was brought out to cope with hint, but he
was fortunately recaptured before any further damage
was done. His left eye was, however, shot out
' in 1865 near Philadelphia, and his hide bore the
scars of numerous bullets and red-hot irons used to .
subdue him at different times when he insisted on
committing depredations. He stood eleven feet two
and a half inches high, and is supposed to have been a
hundred years old. His death, which was beautiful
as his life, is thus described by the Herald. On Mr.
Forepaugh, his owner, visiting the menagerie tent in
the morning he found Romeo extended on the floor,
"Ins colossal flanks heaving with quick short gasps,
his eyes fixed and filmy, and the further extremity of
the trunk cold and pulseless. The sound of Mr. Fore-
paugh's voice, calling him by his name, was recognized
by the dying mastodon, and he attempted to raise his
head in response to the touch of his owner's hand, but
his strength was departed, his life was ebbing fast, his
, head dropped back upon the ground, and after a few
, weak convulsive steno glee he had ceased to breathe,
, and all that remained of Romeo was a monstrous heap
of inanimate flesh."