Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-05-04
From the chicago Tribune

An obituary-For the Young Folks.
From the Chicago Tribune.
The telegraph Informs us that Tippo
Sahib IS no more. He breathed his
last at an insignificant town in Indiana
on Friday, after checkered and event.
full career of about one hundred and
. fifty years. He has the distinction of
leaving behind him a name which,
although it has been blazoned over the
whole country in letters of the most
abnormal length, and although its
owner, seen and criticised by many
thousands, has never been accused Of
dishonor, or of belonging to any ring
except the circus ring, nor has there
been any breath of scandal affecting
his reputation as steady-going eleI
plant. When Tippo Sahib was ushered
into the world, in the early part OF the
eighteenth century, it was with the ex-
pectation on the part OF his parents
that he would live and die on the soil
of India, and that when he should
finally check his trunk for the land
where good elephants go, he would
leave his native jungles in about the
same condition as he found them. But
how contrary was the result Ilppo
was impelled by circumstances over
which he had no control, to join the
innumerable caravan which moves
toward Columbia, to follow the star of
empire westward, to cast his lot in the
land of the free and the home of the
brave.
The result of this determination had
most important bearing upon his des-
tiny; insomuch that, instead OF passing
life unnoted by any event outside the
monotony of East Indian days, he saw,
in the last ten years of his life, more of
life than all his ancestors for ten ele-
phantine generations had done. When
Tippo Sahib first beheld the light of
day, the country of his adoption was a
bowling wilderness. The cities where
he has made his triumphal marches,
and where he has borne squealing and
delighted maidensu upon his caparisoned
back, were unknown to civilization
while yet Tippo himself was a tolera-
bly, old elephant. The villages where
Tippo has waved his proboscis on high
to the terror Of gaping urchlns, or
wagged his mild conservative tail in
recognition of propitiatory candy,
were the scenes of savage powwows or
wild deer hunts when he was cutting
his fourth set of molars, and munching
his frugal meal of rice, millet, and
sugar-cane.
1t is generally admitted that the ele-
plant is the most Intelligent of quad
rupeds; so that if there be, as one of
our Chicago divines has urged, a future
existence for dumb beasts, it is evident
that the elephant will have an advanced
nook therein When Tippo Sahib shall
there salute his ancestors and youthful
playmates, it will be interesting to hear
the tales he will have to tell them of
his American experience; what sweep
ing progress he has observed in the
great West; what dread CONFUSION she
has observed in the political world;
how free government can enforce its
authority against an unreasonable re-
bellion of vast section; how many
times that section can be reconstructed
while his (Tippo's) tusks are growing a
few inches; how seriously those self
same tusks are endangered by the high
duty on ivory; how anxious the Amer
lean people are to see the elephant; and
how Theodore Thomas may fiddle in
vain to Chicago if Tippo Sahib is
around, with good circus show to re-
inforce him; how suddenly procession
may be improvised in an American
town, if but brass band and an ele-
plant appear to lead it; how, in short,
the Fourth of July itself pales its in
etlectual fireworks beside the superior
splendor of a menagerie In short, the
death of this great animal is an i'm
portant event altogether, not only to
Tippo Sahib and his proprietors, but
to the devotees of zoology, and to the
children of America.