The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-05-19

oHc VI VIC cOolleS WHO was ueIendlng IT,
and dashed off into the Jungle. His
career as a rogue began with his escape
from the keddah BY people who came
to know him after the event, and until
the day of his death, he was called "the
mad elephant" and there were good
grounds for the belief that he was in
sane.
In very short time he became the
terror OF Poonasy hills. He destroyed
great quantities of grain and standing
crops, pulled down huts, overthrow
carts and broke them to pieces on the
high road, killed a number of bullocks
in the yoke, and charged all the men
and cattle he encountered. At the vii
lage OF Maroon, he suddenly rushed out
OF the jungle upon group of girls and
women who were drawing water at the
well, and before the terror-stricken
creatures could fly from the spot, he
caught two of them and instantly
trampled them to death. The destruc-
ton of this dangerous beast became a
matter of public Importance. There
were many persons about who possessed
firearms, but only one of them had the
courage to face the monster and attempt
to kill him, but the gun burst, and the
man failed to kill him. ~
Shortly after this, St. George appeared
upon the scene, bent upon Kidding the
country of the rogue. And who was
St. George, do you ask? None other
than my old friend of the Animallai
hills, Mr.. A. G. R. Theobald, as gallant
sportsman as ever took trail. The
readers of the ChamDion already know
him as the slayer of the Doraypore man
eater.
As l sat with him one day in his pict-
uresque forest bungalow, surrounded
by trophies of the chase, 1 said to him:
"TelI me about your encounter with
the Poonasy rogue. You know I have
never had bill of particulars
His eyes kindled and his cheeks flush
ed slightly with honest pride as he re-
lated the facts with frank modesty.
swell, now, that was no child's play,
I assure you. For three years that brute
had completely tcrrorized the people of
the Poonasy hills, and they had become
as tl1nlQ as mares.
sit is lucky he did not eat them, or he
would have been worse neighbor than
a man-eating tiger. 1t is said he charged
nearly every person he saw, and it was
a surprise to every body that more peo-
pie were not killed. But the Poonasy
people get to be very swift runners,
from such constant practice, for they
were always ready to bolt like mad
from any sudden or strange noise in the
jungle.
every soon after I was stationed at
Kollegal, I determined to put an end to
him and the mischief he was doing. So
! one day, about the middle of July, 1
took my gun-bearer and a good tracker,
and went over to Poonasy village to
make inquiries as to his whereabouts.
The people told ME they saw his
tracks every day, but although
the were anxious to have him
killed, not of them would 60 with me to
find him, except the monigar, the head
man of the village. So, at daybreak
the next morning we four set our, taking
with us two days rations of cooked
food The monigar said the old fellow
was not far of, and sure enough, we
found his tracks in less than an hour.
They were perfectly enormous, seven
teen incehs wide, in fact, and there was
no other elephant in that whole country
| capable of making such tracks. Of
course, he was alone, and to our great
ioy we found that the trail was only a
few hours old. 1t was as plain as a
cattle path. and we followed it up very
rapidly A big elephant walks pretty
fast, usually, and if you want to over
take one which is several miles ahead of
you, you have got to. step off pretty
lively.
1.-The Jungle was fearfully thick and
thorny, composed mostly Of dense
growth of young bamboos. Now and
then we had to crouch down almost on
hands and knees to get through a par
ticularly thick patch, and at such times
we always thought: What if the old
rogue should be lying in wait and at
tack US now! 1t was rather nervous
work, I can tell you. Hunting ele-
plants is risky business at best, but fol-
lowing up a bloodthirsty old rogue is
doubly dangerous. After few hours
pull we overhauled the old fellow about
eleven o'clock, but he was in a big
bamboo thicket of the very worst
description. 1t was like a thick cane
brake, impossible to penetrate with
out making a noise, and a man could
no more run through it to dodge an ele-
plant than he could fly. 1t would have
been the height of folly to attack the
rogue in such cover, 80, after hanging
around for half an hour, hoping he
would come out, we went to windward
of him to drive him out. He must have
known what we had come for, for in
stead of charging us as he did nearly
| every body else, he broke cover on the
opposite side from us, and dashed off
through the Jungle. We made after
him directly, as hard as we could 60,
and a fineI chase we had of it, assure
YOU. He led us over all kinds of
ground, through the thickest and thorn
lest tracks of jungle, up and down the
steepest hills, and crossed the river four
times. He didn't stop anywhere to
browse, but kept right on at a fast
walk.
"At last, about five o'clock in the af-
ternoon, when we were pretty well
tired out, we overhauled him again,
but he was feeding in the same kind OF
dense young bamboo jungle we found
him in before. TO make matters worse,
it was very near sunset, so in order not
to spoil our chances we left him undis-
turbed. went off about a mile, and
camped for the night. The next morn