St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-09-01

then goodbye to freedom. He is
starved there until he either rises as
elephant No. 80 of the Public Works
Department" or as 50 the great and only
Jumbo" of the "greatest show on
earth" When herd is driven in there
is generally big male elephant along
with it, who has to be shot before any
thing can be done in capturing the fe-
males. He is true gentleman, and
goes tramping all over the "kraal :
trumpeting and trying to protect his
friends from the animal man. When
the Duke of Edinburgh visited Ceylon o
great "kraal was gotten up for his
benefit, which attended. He was due
at certain date, but he was two days
behind time, and when he did arrive he
entered the temporary village of huts
under as unique a triumpha1 arch as |
expect he ever had gone under. 1t
was composed of all the empty beer,
champagne, soda-water, whisky and
brandy bottles that had been drank
while awaiting his overdue arrival. and,
/ can tell you, the arch was a pretty big
one, as the climate is very "thirst pro-
vocative.' At the same s'kraal' ne
had a very narrow squeak for his life:
Two good shots, Messrs. Fisher and
Varlan, were put alongside of him, and
a big elephant was to be the subject OF
slaughter. When he charged the Duke
fired and missed, and, strange to say,
both Fisher and Varlan did the same.
The elephant was almost on the Duke
when the sound of a, rif1e7shot rung out,
and the great beast dropped almost at
his feet. No one knew where the shot
| had come from until attention was di-
rected to a small cloud of blue smoke
| floating from tree-top, and it was dis
| covered that g Cingalee = shikarree
had shot the elephant, when the others
had missed, with an old fiint-lock musket.
Sc the mourning warehouses in England
| lost big trade.
| When the elephant is caught and
tanned, there is no animal under the sun
that exceeds him in sagacity. The
| touch of his trunk is as gentle as the
touch of woman hand, and the stamp
of his Get or blow from that same
gentle trunk is as powerful as that from
a steam-hammer. The Government
uses them chiefly in the public works
department, where they are employed
in moving huge blocks of stone, where
it would be expensive and, in fact, i'm
possible to use steam-engines. They
have been known to drag up huge
blocks Of stone, shove them into posi-
ton, and then sway slowly backward,
and, if the stone was not perfectly right
| " placed, give it a push, either to the
right or to the left, until it was.
A public works department man once
told me that he was experimenting the
unloading of lot of steel tubing, at
which elephants were engaged. The
tubing had been oiled to prevent rust.
and when the elephant took the first
piece up in his trunk it slipped on ac-
count Of the oil. He took it up again
| with the same result, and finally he
seemed to understand it. and, pushing
| it with his foot to where there was some
sand, he rolled it over and over until the
sand stuck to it and prevented it slip
ping, when he took it up and triumph
| antly carried it.
Stories of the sagacity of the elephant
might be told ad infaaitssn. It is no
doubt "a shame to shoot them except
when they are "rogues. When they
! are that, it resolves itself into a ques-
ton Of = You kill the elephant, or the
elephant will kill you. n-Ciacinaaati
| Enquirer. IS #fts EF38