Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1869-08-05
N. o. WALLACE, ]
Established December 18th, 1850
a Talk with an Ele-
plant Trainer--How Ell
ephants are Educated.

OGOy AutlAS, SAulUltSu vi
Friday and Saturday in thii
city, is as popular and well known
as the majority of human actors
who tread the boards instead of
the sawdust ring. Like them, she
endeavors to please, and in hel
way feels chagrined as deeply when
she fails to receive the approba
ton believed to be merited. She
is now FIVE years old, and though
far from her ''teens," is neverthe.
less a pretty good lump of a body,
weighing eighteen hundred pounds.
History has been faithfully kept,
and Mclaughlin, her trainer, can
tell you every thing about her.
Sat the time of her capture,
she was only two years old /; but
Smith, the captor, assisted by a
party of African dogs, found her
as hard to control in her infancy,
as most women are at mature age.
Alter few weeks training she
was started for the coast, eight
hundred miles away, and Kenyon
has yet in his cages two large
hyenas that rode in baskets slung
over Miss Annie's back. Her
cost in New York was eight thou
sand dollars, and at the time of
her purchase she was the smallest
elephant in this country, and is
still the only genuine African ele-
phant. Though she has never
been hard pushed to test her en-
durance on the road, she once took
a stretch of forty-two miles over
the rocky roads of Pennsylvania
in eleven hours, and showed not
the least sign of exhaustion.
"NIiss Annie is model female
-one Of the old school, and
would as soon twist her head off
with her trunk as to harm a hu-
man who treated her courteously.
Last winter, in her quarters at
Philadelphia, she exhibited love
and hate in a very singular man
ner. Mclaughlin had imbibed
rather freely, and returning to the
barn, got into a difficulty with
policeman, who was bent on ar
resting him. The cop had been
around the barn good deal, and
was somewhat acquainted with
the elephant. The trainer fed to
the barn, and getting behind 'Ba-
by refused to submit to arrest
The NJ. P. boldly advanced to
bring him out, when the elephant
thrust him aside with her trunk.
This was repeated several times,
the trainer encouraging her, when
the policeman gave her an angry
blow with bis baton, and sought
to push by. Blowing her snrill
trumpet, Baby caught him a
round the waist, and giving him 9
strong whirl, deposited the fright
ened blue-coat in a barrel of oats
thirty feet away. As he had no
instructions to arrest elephants,
and could not arrest the man with
out her, he concluded not to press
matters further.
SAT another time last summer,
during u hot night, Mclaughlin
laid down beside Baby on bale
of hay, and soon fell asleep. Near
him was the cage of the Bengal
tiger, a fierce and ungovernable
animal, and treacherous to the
last degree. BY lying down the
beast could get his paws at full
under the bars, and on the morn
ing of that very day he had thus
given his unsuspecting keeper a
stroke with his paws that tore open
the mans cheek in horrible man.
ner. Restless, Mclaughlin rolled
about, and the eyes of the Bengal
tiger glistened as he saw the body
coming closer to his cruel claws.
At length, just as one of the
keepers entered the door, the train
er rolled down so near that the
tiger reached out and caught his
clothes. With a savage snarl, he
was Strengthening back tor a pull,
to get the flesh under the nails,
when the elephant, who had also
been sleeping, rose up at the growl
and seeing the situation at
glance, rushed forward, before
the man at the door had scarce
IIy advanced step, and with
a blow of her trunk made the ti-
ger let go his hold and scream
with pain and fury.
"Since her capture she has in
creased seven hundred pounds in
weight, and six inches in height.
Three years ago she had not a
sign of tusk; now she has ivo-
ries six inches long, and growing
finely. In the summer, when the