Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1880-04-08
ELEPHANT sF0RIRs.

Frank Melville has been telling . re-
porter something Of bis observation on
elephants. He says: / meter get
tired Of watching them, for they are al
ways doing something new showing
how intelIigent. cunning and 4 may
say devllish, hey are. They UNDER
stood ewhaf I said TO them as well as
most people do, and think about what
they want TO do just as person 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. tits
no uncommon thing for an elephant to
pull up the stake TO WHICH he is chained,
20 TO a feed bin containing oats or car
rots, wrench OF the lock, raise the lid,
eat all he wants, put the lid down again,
return to bis place. poke the stake to
which his cham is fastened back into
the same hole il came out Of, and stamp
IL down with his foot, and then when
his keeper comes he will look as Inno-
cent as lamb; but il you will watch
the beast until the man begins c0rsIDg
about the robbery Of the feed bin, you'll
observe an amused twinkle in his
wicked, watchful little eyes that shows
his enjoyment OF the situation. The ell
ephant is always on the outlook to play
trick. Incautiously leave q jacket or
shirt where he can get at it, and he will,
when he thinks himself unobserved, de-
liberately pull every button of it, and
then put il back Just where you LEFT it,
and show that he finds 1t funny when
you get mad. / have seen two ofthem
get up sham fight TO attract the atten-
lion OF third, so that fourth could get
a chance 10 steal the feed of the third.
"Tippoo Saib was the grandest ele-
plant 1 ever saw. He had tusks ten
feet long, and when he was mad he was
able To close their points together or
spread them apart, as he liked, in way
I've never seen any other do. When
he got a chance TO kill anything he
would first knock 1T down, then put the
points of those tremendous tusks to-
gethers and. dropping on his knees,
would drive those points through what
the ground with them. At one little
town in Iowa, where we were stopping
over Sunday. we had a sort OF canvas
Enclosure around him, where he was
chained to stake. The keeper went
awsy to big :i1asCS f~-a'ehman
"a young doctor came around and
wanted to get into the inclosure TO look
at Tppoo Sab. He had been to the
show the day before and seen him there,
but he wanted quiet look at him. The
Waterman told HIM the beast was dam
gerous aud he had better not 60 near
him, but the young doctor allowed that
he knew all about il; that elephants
were docIle, intelligent animals, and he
was not afraid Of them. As he was so
confident, and seemed to know SO much
about elephants. the Waterman went to
his dinner. When he came back Tip
poo had literally torn the young doc
tors head of his body. -
"After that they cut his tusks of short,
and At seemed to break his heart. They
were fitted with iron sockets to screw
on again, but he had no confidence IN
them as weapons to kill anything with;
appeared to know they were no longer
a part Of bin, but just an attachment,
and he never was the same proud ele-
plant again. His keeper used to keep
his money m the hollow OF the sockets
Of one Of the tusks. But, even with
his fnsks of, he was regarded as dan
gerous. He would roll his trunk up
into close roll, like coiling up spring,
and then flip it out, and whatever he
struck that way was gone. Ibelieve he
could have knocked down hippopota-
mus with one crack ofthat trunk. Some
times pigs would come about him while
he was eating. He wouldn't appear to
pay any attention until one would get
close enough; then tap would be Civ
en- him by that monster trunk and the
life be fairly knocked out of piggy. He
would reach for the pig, and make a
sure job Of il by standing on him a mo-
ment, then toss the shapeless carcass
behind him, and 60 on eating as placid
ly as ever. In Somerset, Ohio, think
il was, he got stubborn, and struck at
everybody that came near him, and, in
tear of what he might do il he got fairly
started, they killed him-shot him in
the eye with large rifle ball, and set
lied him.
Sow elephants never are vicious.
They are sometimes mischiesous. but
never malicious and murderous. The
bulls are apt 10 get that way about four
times q year. especially as they grow
old. AT such times they get those sud-
den hts of uncomfortable rage aud woe
be to whatever living thing in their
way then. An elephan: is worse shan
any other Wild beast when he is wicked,
because he has so much intelligence in
planning deviltry aud cunning feroci.y
IN exercising il with his terrible power.
If an elephant could talk. he'd be a
match in cuteness for most men. And
they do talk among themselves. In
1862, when was travelling With May
bie's show. we were going TO Indepen-
dence, Iowa, the town where MIR. Old
er. our manager. lived, aud, as it was
his own town. he wanted TO put on some
style there.
$50 We had three elephants hitched
to the band wagon. They were tan
dem, of course. Betsy. small COW ell
ephant, went frsi; Mary, little larger
COW elephant, was second, and Sultan,
. very big bull elephant, was between
the shafts. We had to cross bridge
going into towns wooden bridge, for
~ feet high, over the rocky bed Of .