Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1880-02-20
THE CUNNING OF ELEPHANTS.
With Some Instances of Their InIeIlI-
genee aud FerOcity.

THE CUNNING OF ELEPHANTS.
With Some Instances OfTheIr InteIlI-
genee and FerOcIty.
New York Sun.
T"My family have been in the cir
Gus business for seventy years" said
Frank Melville, the dashing young
equestrian, now riding in the "Im-
perial Partisan" Circus at the Aqua
rum. "and my earliest memories
are of incidents of show life. Speak
ing of elephants, / once rode forty
miles on The back of one, old Tip
poo Saib, when was only six years
old, and ever since have been
around where theywere and have had
opportunities of studying their ways.
| don't want any more intimate as
sociatiou with them than that, but
so far they have real fascination
for me. During the Ienting season,
when am not al work in the ring,
the most likely place to iud me is
IN the vicinity of the elephants. |
never get tired of them, for they are
always doing something new, show
ing how intelligent, cunning, and l
may say devilish, they are. They
understand what is said to them as
well as most people do, and think
about what they want to do Just as
pefson would. have seen
elephants again and again, when
they thought nobody was about to
watch them, perpetrate thefts with
an ingenuity in avoiding detection
that a human thief would hardly
beat It is no uncommon thing for
an elephant to pull up the stake to
which ne is chained, go to a feed
bin containing oats or carrots,
wrench off the lock, raise the lid.
eat all he wants, put down the lid
return to his place, poke the stake
to which his chain is fastened back
into the same hole it came out of
and stamp it down with his foot,
and then when his keeper comes he
will look as innocent as lamb but
if you watch the beast until the man
begins cursing about the robbery of
the feed bin, you'll observe an
amused twinkle in his wicked, watch
full little eyes that shows his enjoy
meht Of the situation. The elephant
is always. on the lookout to play a
trick. Incautiously leave a Jacket
or shirt where he can get at it, and
he will, when he thinks himself un-
observed, deliberately pull every
button off it, and then put it back
just where you left it, and show that
he finds it funny when you get mad.
| have seen two of them get mp
sham fight 10 attract the attention
Of a third, SO that a fourth could
get chance TO steal the feed of the
third.
Speaking of the elephants un-
derstanding of words-and, mind
you, he knows their meaning as
words, without any accompanying
gestures, such as you have to make
to the best-trained horse. remem.
Der an incident with that same Tip
poo Saib that / rode on when l was
a boy. We we're going into Prairie
du Chen, and he was let get into
the river. Elephants are very fond |
of water, and he was enjoying him
self immensely, with a crowd of, / |
suppose, thousand people looking
on to see the comfort he was taking,
when a fellow came along with a |
monstrcus big Newfoundland dog |
that he had most conceited notion |
of. The dog had, as the man said, |
whipped a bear,' and the fellow |
thought could whip anything, even |
the elephant, and he fsiced' him on |
Tippoo Saib. Frank Nash, who was |
the elephants keeper, suggested to |
the man that the contract was too |
big, and the dog seemed to have |
some such notion himself, for he |
just swan around Tippoo and bark |
ed at him. But that seemed to an
noy the elephant after a while, and |
Frank just said, quietly: Take him
TippOo.' The next second Tippoo |
took him around the waist, soused |
him under water, and shook him |
there as man would a rag, then
tossed him up full thirty feet in the |
air, caught him on the points of his
tusks, grabbed him again and flung
him out on shore. Dead ? Dead! |
Why that dog looked like a hand
kerchief.
"TIppoo Saib was the gr4ndest
elephant l ever saw. He had tusks
ten feet long, and when be was mad
he was able to close their points to-
gether or spread them apart, as he
liked, in way PVe never seen any
other elephant do. When he got a
chance to kill anything he would
first knock it down, then put the
points of those tremendous tusks to-
gether, and, dropping on his knees
would drive those points through
whatever he was numbering, or mash
it into the ground with them. At
one little town in Iowa, where we
were stopping over a Sunday, we
had a sort of canvass enclosure
around him, where he was chained
to a stake. - The keeper went away
to his tent leaving a watchman in
charge of him. A young doctor
came around and wanted to get in-
to the enclosure to look at Tippoo
Saib. He had been to the show the
day before and seen him there, but |
he wanted quiet look at him. The
watchm9n told him the beast was
dangerous, and he had better not go
near him, but the Young doctor al
lowed that he knew all about ii,
that elephants were docile, iutelli .
gent animals, and he was not afraid {
of them. As he was so confident
and seemed to know SO nlsll abogti