Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-09-28
CRUELTY.
catching Eiephants-How the Beasts ara
secured The Duke of Edinburch's
Narrow Escape.

NARROW fscape.
The other part of elephant shoot
ing, which | can only characterize a
fun and not rs sport" is ''kraal
ing" them This is done for tn,
purpose Of obtaining recruits for til,
public works department, tempt,
elephants for service in the TEMPLES
and now and then for circuses, ele
phants to be trained to stand on theil
heads and take coppers in (not police
mem with their trunks. The wa,
they are caught is in this wise: The
head man of the village receives ;
notice from the government that they
require SO many elephants. Ther
the temple priests and the circus peo.
pie, If any, want so many mere, anc
they come i'll second hand. The posi-
ton of the ''kraal" is determined on
and then the whole village, man
womaH, aHl child. turn out as beaters
A radius of say ten miles is taken in
and they ''spot' the herd and then
begin to drive them toward the
'"kraai." by day it is all done by
shooting. but at night large fires are
lighted i'll circle. and, as rule. the
herd never attempt to break through,
but now and again they do, and then
the whole performance has to start
again. 1t takes very little to frighten
a herd" of elephants into going the
way you want them quite different
from tie solitary rogue. Half a
dozen men with white wands will
Keep whole herd together. like a
flock of sheep. The 'kraal' is about
two hundred yards in diameter, and
is formed by making a strong stock
alley, with Il narrow entrance, into
winch the elephants are driven. Once
there. tame elephants. generally f.
mails, are introduced with mahouts,
WHO make friends with the wild cnes.
and Two tame ones will slide up to a
wild one, one on each side, gradually
closing up on him until he is jammed
SO tight that he cannot move. Then
natives creep in underneath and make
ropes fast all round his legs, tying
the end Of one to strong tree. This
is gradually shortened, until from
G bonr fati,r,,n ln lsoe .J,,,.,, II Ill.,,
cood-by to freedom. He is starved
there until he either rises as "Ele
phant No. 90 of the Public Works
Department." or As the great and
only jumbo of the "greatest show
on earth" When a herd is driven in
there is generally a big bull elephant
along with it, who has to he shot be-
fore anything can be done in captur-
ing the female. Hs is trne gentle
man, and goes ramping all over the
"kraal' trumpeting and trying to
protect his LADY friends" from the
animal man.
When the Duke of Edinburgh
visited Ceylon great ''kraaf' 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 or huts
under as unique triumphal arch as
L expect he had ever gone under. 1t
was composed of all the empty beer,
champagne. soda water, whiskey and
brandy bottles that had been drank
while awaiting his overdue arrival,
and, l can tell you, the arch was a
pretty big one, as the climate is very
thirst provocative" At the same
"kraal' he had a very narrow squeak
for his life. Two good shots, Mesers,
Fisher and Narian, were put along
side of him. and a big bull elephant
was to he the subject of slaughter.
When the bull charged, the duke
fired and missed. and, strange to say,
both Fisher and Narian did the same.
The elephant was almost on the duke
when the sound of rifle shot rung
out. and the great beast dropped
almost at his feet. No one knew
where the shot came from until atten-
ton was directed to a small cloud of
blue smoke Heating from tree-top,
and it Was discovered that a Gin
galee" shikarcc had shot the elephant
when the others lad missed, with an
old flintlock musket. So the mourn
ing warehouse in England lost a big
trade.
When the elephant is caught ard
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 IL woman's hand, anG
the stamp of his feet or a blow from
that same gentle trunk is as powerful
as that from a steam hammer. The
government uses them chiefly in tho
public works department, where they
are employed in moving huge block:
of stone, where it would be expensive
and, in fact. impossible to use steam
engines. They have been known t,
'drag up huge blocks of stone, shove
them into position, and then ava,
slowly backward, and, if the stone
was not perfectly rightly placed, Civ,
it a push. either to the right or to tn
left, until il was.
A public works department MAJ
once told me that he was superintend
ing tho unloading Of a lot of stee
tubing, at which elephants We're en-
gagged. The tubing had been ollie,
to prevent rust, and when the elephan
took the first piece up in his trunk /
slipped on account of the oil. IL
took it mp again with the same result
and finally he seemed to understan'
it. and, pushing it with his foot t
where there was some sand, he rolle'
it over and over until the sand stuc
to it and prevented it slipping. wheI
he took it up and triumphantly car
ried it.
Stories of the sagacity of the elf
plant might be told an lnlinitum.
is no doubt a shame to shoot thel
except when they are "rogues.' Whe
fthey are that, it resolves itself into
question Of You kill the elephant, Q
the elephant will kill YOU Cincir
matt Enquirer.
A Peoria girl recently planted l(
of feathers with the hope that the
would bring forth an early crop {