The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-29

Arc Eisphants Dying Out or the World?
Big, had, and dead Elephsnts.

Arc Eisphants Dying Out OF the Worids
big, had, and Dead Elephants.
Only few years have elapsed since
the London Spectator declared il quite
likely that If Jumbo attained the nat
ural limit OF his life, 100 years, he
might be the last of his race ON the
globe. The production of the !, 200, 900
pounds of ivory used in England alone
every year necessitates the death of
5000 elephants, and from various
causes the annual death rate of this
most interesting of quadrupeds is esti-
mated OF not less than 100000. Breed
ing in captivity must, then, be depend
ed on eventually to propagate the
species, and how far successful this has
been may be inferred from the general
rejoicing among show people when at
rare intervals baby elephant is born.
In death Jumbo, by his tusks alone,
proved his immense value. Ivory at
Liverpool has brought as high as 81, 200
ton. In 1879 it went down to 5000
a ton, but has since advanced nearly
100 per cent. The dead mammoth's
tusks entitle him to the rink accorded
him Of pre-eminence in size over any
elephant ever brought to America.
There Is q great beast which has for
nine years never left his prison-pen at
Moscow which is twelve inches higher
than Jumbo was. There are "timber
toters" among the draught elephants on
the banks of the Ganges thirteen feet
high, and from whose number q great
er Jumbo might readily be procured.
But there will never be q more docile,
and consequently, aside from his size,
more interesting elephant on exhibition.
Bad elephants, elephants on their
travels, and dead elephants ars the
most interesting by all odds, except,
of course, the intelligent beasts which
are paraded in Sunday-school books
and first readers for the delectation of
the young, and which have no exist
ence anywhere else.
The fish-eating elephant is considered
in India the most vicious of his species
In the Himalayas each variety of the
semi-sacred beast has aname The crab
lover is called Hinaxat, and turns read
lily to q man-eater. Another monster.
which eats so much fish that his hide
becomes scaly, is called Bek. But the
famous mad elephant of Munda is con-
coded to be the worst elephant ever
known. For years he had been in the
stud of the East India Company. One
night he became possessed of a demon,
and the next morning broke loose and
fled to the woods. For weeks that
whole province was rror-stricken.
With cunning which could never be
anticipated the mad elephant set hum
dreds of hunters at defiance, and,
creeping on unprotected villages,
smashed the huts and trampled on wom-
en- and children. He had destroyed
thirty-five lives when killed.
When Jumbo first came over here
the London Times commiserated his
unhappy lot, but said it was better af-
ter all than the treatment the tribute
elephants sent from Burmah to Pekin
get when they misbehave. They are
blinded and tumbled into great pit to
starve.
When the Emperor of Brazil came to
Philadelphia in 1876 newly arrived
elephant at the Zoo was named Dom,
after him. When Dom became insubor-
dinate hundreds of people went out to
see one foot chained and then another,
until each of the four was fast to ca
BILE running over pulley wheel, when
with single pull Dom's legs were
stretched out, and he was reduced grad
punished this way when he was 10 years
old.
Barnum's big Pilot had to be severe
ly disciplined once for engaging in a
regular prize-fght with fellow-mam-
NAL. Pilots morning cocktail of twenty
seven gallons of water didn't cool his
coppers on one occasion, so he deliber-
ately kicked out and blacked COM
panion's eye. The rough-and-tumble
fight which ensued was exciting. But
no elephant is ever so wicked as when
he is travelling. In 1880, John Robin
sons Chief, with the circus at Char
lotte, N. c., instantly killed his keep
er, John King, while the latter, in the
presence of o large crowd, was endeavor-
ing to show how the beast climbed into
his special railway car. The comedy
became q tragedy when Chief seized
King by the waist and dashed him to
instant death against the side of the
car. The crowd of North Carolinians
became so enraged that, until the alb
surdity of the thing dawned upon
them, there was actually serious talk
of trying to lynch Chief.
The first modern instance of deviltry
on an elephants travels was the muir
der by the Duke of Edinburgh's Tom of
his keeper en- route from Plymouth to
London. Tom had been brought from
India in 1870 in FL. r. HIS yacht Gala
tea, and trumpeted frantic protests
when put on the cars. A few minutes
afterward he reared and crushed Will
liam Patton, his keeper, against the par
tition.
But the most ferocious elephant
spree on record is that of Barnum's
Emperor in Troy, N. Y, when, in COM
pany with Jumbo, the attempt was
made to drive him through the streets to
the train for Gloversville. Emperor did
not want to travel. He first ran
through the streets to Erastus Corn
ing's iron foundry, and, rushing in,
burned his feet badly on the red hot
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