The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-07-07
Training Elephants.

The course of training elephants does
not always run smooth, and when the
animal Is really refractory the keepers
have ga heavy hand" with their charge.
The most usual method of persuasion
employed, when coaxing and feeding
have failed, is, we believe, to "jab
them with pitchfork till blood is free
ly drawn" at least this was the expla-
nation given by a trainer of repute of
his own practice in his gentle art, and
it accords with Strabo's assertion, that
''to prevent them shaking themselves
in order to throw off those who attempt
to mount them, they (the ancient Indi-
ans) make cuts all around their necks
and then put thongs of leather into the
incisions, SO that the pain obliges them
TO submit to their letters and remain
quiet" Under this or similar treat
ment an elephant can be made to ex-
hibit the greatest docility in the arena,
and will show a touching devotion to
his keeper which cannot fail to render
the circus at which he is employed as
moral an exhibition as Artemus Wards
own celebrated "Snaix." We have
seen an elephant trainer put his head in
the mouth OF one of his proteges during
the performance, when the brute obsti-
nately kept its mouth closed, and was
only induced to change its mind by a
violent kick upon the trunk from pair
of heavy boots. No doubt this sslittle
eccentricity" was followed by
summary and severe punish
ment; but, we must confess, that
to so intelligent creature as an ele-
phant, the insertion of a human head
into its mouth must have seemed such
an idiotic proceeding that little hesita-
ton as to what to do with il is quite al
lowable. In Baroda, under the late
Gaikwar's rule, huge elephant was
kept as the public executioner, and
used to dispatch poor wretches, at the
word of command, by crushing their
skulls with his enormous foot. Per-
haps this elephant may have imagined
that some such duty was expected of
him, and was merely turning the mat
phant is callous, even to the gentle per-
"must that is to say, hopelessly de-
praved and rampant-there is only one
kind of influence which can be advan-
tageously exercised, and that is to sin
fluence his head off," or, at least, to
adopt the handiest available form of
euthanasia. The poor old historical
elephant of the Royal Exchange mad
dened by toothache. had to be treated
by a firing party of soldiers; and an
other submitted to about a quart of
prussic acid, entailing fatal consequen-
ces to a butcher who had called in to
assist in its subsequent dissection. As
rule, they are very patient under
pain, and easily recognize the fact that
any proposed operation is ''for their
good" There are two elephants at this
moment in the Geological Gardens who
have submitted to surgical treatment,
the one for an accident which tore off a
portion of its trunk, the other for an
abcess in the face. The ancients also
knew how to treat sick or wounded
elephants, and Elian gives an elaborate
description of the therapeutics en-
ployed, dwelling at tine same time upon
the gratitude which the creatures
evinced when cured. On the whole,
we need not wonder that Ganesha, the
Hindu God of Wisdom, is represented
with an elephants head to symbolic
the possession of extraordinary sagacity.
London Saturday Revieto.