Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-04-12
Elephants that Labor.

In Il recent letter to the Chicago
Mail, Ex-Mavor Harrison says: In each
of the native saw-millS. where small
orders are filled, two elephants per-
form the heavy labor which human
hands unassisted could scarcely man
age. They draw the logs, many of
them three feet in diameter and thirty
to forty feet long, from the river, pile
them up in systematic order, and when
they are needed roll them to the WAYS
and assist in adjusting them for the
saw. Lumber is not here sawed into
boards, bat the slab is taken off and
the good stuff left in square timber to
be ripped up into boards where con-
sumed. This is done both for home
consumption and for expectation.
After the log is cut the elephant goes
among the machinery, takes the slabs
away, and then carries the good tim
Der and piles it up or laws it gently
upon the oX-carts to be hauled off.
4 carpenter we saw wanted lumber
from particular log which was under
several others. One of the monsters
rolled the upper logs off and pushed
the chosen stick to the mill. The way
was not clear-the log butted against
others. He pushed these aside and
guided his piece through them with
sagacity almost human. His stick
became wedged. He pushed and
tugged; it would not bulge, but at
whispered word from the mahout and
the promise of bit of nice food he
bent to it. Still it stuck. With
whistle audible for quarter of a mile
he got on his knees, Strengthened out
his hind legs, and put his whole force
to it. He was successful. We could
almost read his satisfaction in the
gentle flaps of his huge ears and the
graceful curve of his proboscis as he
put it up to the mounted mahout, ask
ing his reward. Sticks over two feet
thick and ten 10 fifteen feet long are
lifted up bodily upon the great worries,
and are then carried off and laid upon
the gangways so gently as not to make
jar. One stick p inches thick and
p feet long we saw carried in this
way. In carving this the beast had
path not three feet wide among
masses of loose logs. He had to plant
his fore feet upon these and thus walk
q considerable distance. He looked
as if he were walking upon his hind
legs. The corner of bamboo hut
stood in his way. He lifted the log
over its roof. and bent his body so that
his side gently scraped the corner of
the house and did not shake it. A
hundredth part of his weight would
have caused it to topple from its pile
foundation.
He was ordered to carry off pile of
Axe pieces 10 to IL feet long. He ran
his tusks under a few The mahout
told him that was not enough. He
tried again, and probably doubled his
load. His driver gave him fierce
prod with his iron hook over the fore
head. With shrek of rage he sent
his worries under the pile and threw
his snout over the top. He had to get
on his knees to get the load up. 1t
was a decent dray-load. As lie passed
US, perched on pile of logs, | moved
away, for l thought there was blood
in his eye and that he might dump the
load on the foreigners. But when he
came back he stopped before US, got
On his knees, bowed three times, and
held out his snout to us for gratuity.
pitched a coin to the mahout. He
whispered to the beast that his
elephantship would get a part of it.
This seemed satisfactory, for he snuffed
up pint of dust blew it over his
rump, and marched off for a bath in n
mud-hole not far away. Each mill
has pair. They work only in short
spells, and take their rest when feed
ing in grass-grown mud-pOnds.