Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-23
Cooper $ Ba1ley's Luck


 American EIephant--What It Looks Like and FEOVV 1t Acts.
 From ths Philadelphia Chronicle -Herald March 22
 "Yes, it's chip of the old block" said the keeper to the writer as they made compari- son between the funny little baby elephant and It's mother, as both stood in the sawdust- covered ring where the two animals were. The latter were in the center of the ring the mother chained to a stout post driven deep into the ground, and was quietly eating her Sunday morning breakfast of sweet hay ever and anon picking up particularly choice whisp and holding it cut to the baby, but the latter hadn't got educated up to that point, and preferred an unadulterated milk diet. And the baby itself. Such an epitome of it's mother. Just for all the world as if one were to look through the big end of an opera. glass at the mother did the baby appear to the eye.
 Yes, there were 8 few points of distinction; the hide was covered with long black hair, not much more plentiful than the blades of grass on one of the Cape God farms, where they have to shoot the seed into the soil out of musket, and looking, at little distance, as if it might be 8 new species of black mold. Standing about three feet in height, it can just run under it's mother conveniently, and when in a contemplative mood, which it ire
  tionless, with trunk dropping at one end and it's tail at the other end and were it not for the two sparkling eyes, one might be willing to wager heads and tails-which was head and which was tail. The latter appendage is much larger in proportion than in the old elephant, and the legs bear the same propor- ton to the matured elephants as young puppys does to the old dogs, and about as clumsy.
 Sometimes it would dawdle about, 1inging one leg around the other as awkwardIy as if it had induIged in a dose of''tangle foot'' ''The mother is very quiet and gentle" says the keeper, and the writer, taking the hint, ven lures on Q closer inspection of the funny little phenomenon, little on account of it's relation to mature growth, for it already looks as Hbig as prize pig. A closer inspection is reward ed by the qualification of the old one, who al- most succeeds in grabbing the reporters pa per and pencil in it's effort to investigate and by the equally inquisitive inspection of the little one. The latter advances in seIf-as- sured manner, with trunk gracefully uplifted and mouth wide open, as if to take in all, and after prolonged examination, suddenly runs back into closer contact with its mother. As one looks closer at the baby, the skin is found to be darker than the mothers and scanned in thousands of little wrinkles that look as if they were made by having skin much too large for its body shrunk on it. The eyes, large, bright and intelligent, are surrounded by
 
 while the back is even more hogged than the old ones.
 And stoic would laugh at its play, for at times, especially when it is feeling well, it cuts up pretty friskily, running around the ring and occasionally going head over heels in the sawdust ring, and then, getting up, run full tilt at it's mother. At most times there couple of dogs in the ring. These are of the species of coach dogs-spotted fellows, one of them old, fat, and with "walr' eye and good eye; the other younger and slighter built one. Both dogs have been accustomed to the elephants in the menagerie for some years past But since the birth of the baby both of them keep shy from approaching, for the mother seems suspicious of them both, and especially of the younger dog, whom she chases away whenever she sees it near her. The baby, too, as if in spirit of mischief, will run at the old fat dog and tap it with its little trunk, and the dog never hesitates a moment, but starts instantly to prospect for another location on the opposite side. Some times when thus disturbed, it acts as if it were undecided what to think of the situa- ton, and will run up to the outer edge of the ring and gaze intently as if it saw some thing about hundred miles or 50 away that required very careful study, and then return to the side of what it seems to think it's charge, and lie down again. It will be recol- 1ected that when the baby elephant was born the mother got into perfectly furious tan- trum, tore loose and for time seemed to be in fair way to clean out the whole busi- ness. The keeper said that the reason that, he thinks, induced her to treat the dogs so roughly was that she conceived that they were about to take her baby from her, and the feeling has not entirely left her yet. Last Thursday afternoon she got into another tan trum, and for an hour or so made things live ly in the circle where she was chained, but she soon quieted down and seems to have settled to sense ofher responsibilities in the case As a matter of mere curiosity the baby is suc cess, and as an aid to knowledge of the pe- culiar habits of the elephant it can be of great use to the student of natural history. Since its birth, less than dozen days ago, it ap- pears to have gained considerably in bulk and weight, and bids fair to live to mature age.
 This colossal infant, with all of the wild beast wonders and circus champions attached to the famous London Circus, Sangers Royal British Menagerie, united with the ten Inter national Allied shows, Cooper, Bailey & Co.,, proprietors, will be in New Haven on Thurs day, May 1S.