Sharp County record., 1880-05-06
Stories About Elephants.

1855. and in 1857 exhibited him m a
spectacular production at the Broadway
Theater. Since then, with the exception
of q couple Of wears spent IN cattle
herding in Texas, he has always been
with elephants. He iSa tail. raw-00neu'
powerful man, with a quiet, serious, ar
That the elephants seem 70 Ike, and s1ey
.4Dpear to understand him as well Is ne
Hoes them. when he Is cOntented anu
Feels safe" SAYS Mr.. Craven, IN answer
70 a question. the elephant always lies
down to sleep, believe; but he can
,sAeep standing up, if there Is any ocea-
sion fer it. When we were on 00ard
tie Floating Palace on the Mississippi
River in 1854. TippOO Saib laid down
and slept for the first three months SS
--eEularly as ANYBODY connected with the
show did. But then one night steam
Eyoat ran into uS-eame crashing INTO Ine
Palace. and came near sinking Us. Ihe
incident happened while TippoO Sale
-ras lvinc down. and frightened him SO
shat as LONG as we remained on 'ue
FLOATING Palace. full six months aTRr'
he never laid down except IN a perform
sInce. 1t seems to be as easy tor an
elephant to lie down and get up aS for i
sIoG. and Lakes no more time; but Wt1eH
Eie inlagiueS that anv dangers about ne
wants to be on his feet 10 meet It.
The elephant was q great card Ii
the South and West IN those days. You
can have little idea now Of the effect 1t
had upon backwoodS folks who saw it
fi1r the first time. Some were disposed
godoubtits beingaive. One woman ISaw
drop stone dead in front of TippOO Saib,
Fust through sheer fright. He was at
one end, with row Of cages containing
sknimals on each side down to him. This
woman went along looking into the
cages. and did not see the elephant until
she was right in front of and close to
him. When she did look up and saw
where she vas, she dropped, and never
smiled again. He was up on a raised
platform. and looked awfully big, but l
thing she must have had heart disease.
You had some stories in the San
Few weeks ago about elephants, which
E,eOple unacquainted with the brutes
might think were pretty tough, but l
sEssure YOU they do no more than due
credit to the cunning Of the elephant.
al that about their untying bags and
Breaking open granaries to get at food
z have known by personal experience.
Z have seen an elephant unite a chain
from the stake to which he was fast
ened and make for a Cornheld. And
he was too cunning to walk through the
Fence from the road, where he could
ERzve been tracked. He struck off into
the woods, where his steps would leave
no tracks on the dead leaves, and car
RED his chain with his trunk. so as to
vyrevent its dragging and making trail.
In that way he went around to the back
tsf the field, entered from the woods and
went to eating.
Ibid | ever see a white elephant?
Ees. once. for little while. And that
white elephant was TippOo Saib. 1t
was in Keokuk, Iowa, where ne united
Ifimself one morning a little before day
izght and started off for a promenade
tArough the country on his own account
BE stroIed out to the suburbs Of the
town, was attracted by the appearance
Of a little garden, went in, found it to
his liking and ate it up. Then he went
mound to the back of the house that the
garden belonged to and found there a
Etalf barrel of soft soap, which he took
up with his trunk and shOwered all over
iEIm. Next he pushed open the door Of
3. little summer kitchen at one end Of
the house, and there he found barrel
of flour. The tloUr he used as he had
the soap, dusting it all over him. An
E2ish family lived in the house and were
awakened by the noise he made, and a
worse scared family than they were
when they saw him never was. They
Thought he was the devil."
"Have YOU ever been attacked by
c&ephanrs?'
Yes, often. There is never any
absolute certainty that a bull elephant
will not 90 for his keeper at any min
ute, but as a rule it can be seed for
sssveral days before they get one Of
their fits of rage that they are becOm-
ing dangerous. Then the keeper has
to use determination and judgment in
addition to the watchfuIness he must
always maintain. Romeo was the
worst beast l ever had in my charge.
ff4 the winter of 1867, when Romeo
WAS wintering cut on Mlller's farm,
ryear Hatboro, eighteen miles from
philadelphia. he killed his keeper,
William Williams, better known az
Canada Bill The elephant was show
Iug a dangerous disposition, and Bill
Tynprudently tried to reduce him to
ss,hjection with a pitchfork. Romeo
knocked him down within reach, drew
liam in, knelt and gored him with those
ftu0"