Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-18
Three Delighted Elephants.
Their First Bath fin Years, a nd How They
 Luxuriated in It.
 rFrom the PhiIadeIphia Times

Their First Bath fin Years, a nd How They
 Luxuriated in It.
 From the Philadelphia Timesl
 As the three elephants in the Geological Garden had not washed themselves for more than two years, Superintendent Brown sud- denly realized that it would be eminently proper to give them bath; but the difficulty was to find bath tub large enough to accom- modate the trio of monster proboscidians The sea lion pool or seal tank could not be used, as they are too small, and 1t was re- membered that when Empress took her last bath in the duck pond in 1879 she Topped around in such an extravagant manner and stirred up the mud so thoroughly that she came out far dirtier than she was when she went in. It was clear that if the elephants were to bathe tub would have to be built The work was begun in April, and as it was finished on Friday, the bathers took their first dip yesterday morning. The bath tub is oval in shape, ten feet deep, about one hun dred and twenty feet in circumference, and has a concrete floor and is lined with bricks. Half an hour after the elephants, Dom Pedro, Empress and Fanny, breakfasted yesterday morning they were marched from their pens to the Undiscovered roadway, which inclines to the water in the bathing place. Here En- press became suspicious about the solidity of the roadway and stopped. The keeper, how ever, found several tender places on her body with his harpoon, and after two or three wicked snorts, which were echoed by her companions, she moved cautiously towards the water. The plane to the pool is only about sixty feet long, but so slowly did the bathers move that fifteen minutes elapsed before Empress put one of her feet in the water, raised her trunk and trumpeted loud ly. This cry seemed to dispel the fears of her companions. for an instant later Dom Pedro pushed his way to the front and went boldly into the water. Fanny plunged in next, taking a genuine elephantine ''headern and reappearing in the pool. Empress enter ed very slowly until her legs were covered tense satisfaction she toppled over on her left side and sank out of sight. Dom Pedro, after sousing himself thoroughly and going under the water several times, waded to place where the water was only about three feet deep and stood there lazily whisking his good d-for-nothing little tail at the flies, as he viewed with evident astonishment the prepos- terous capers Fanny was cutting The Dom accepted the situation as coolly as though he bathed every day instead of once in two years, but the females fairly bubbled over with manifestations of satisfaction, and they dived and spouted and snorted and trumpet ed nearly an hour. After spIashing around fifteen or twenty minutes Fanny walked up the incline and then deliberately rolled down into the water again. The effect of this newly discovered feat must have pleased her intense ly, for on coming to the surface each time her piggish little eyes sparkled joyously and she -scampered up the bath to repeat the novel performance.
 At the moment the spectators were most deeply interested in Fannyas performances Dom Pedro showed his ill-breeding by suck