Connecticut western news., 1889-10-30

my head had not the panther above me betrayed his presence by growl. He had better have kept quiet. The ele- phant uttered shrill cry and reached for him, and although the panther bit and tore at the trunk feeling for him, he was seized, held aloft for moment, and then dashed to the floor with such force as to break every bone in his body.
 If ever man was scared out of his boots by an adventure, he was no more alarmed than I was as that elephant went swinging down one aisle and up another, clearing everything before him. He knocked the other two down among the flour barrels, and then pur- sued the wild beasts as they ceased their fight and fled before him. He picked up ham after ham and flung them the length of the building, and large cogwheel belonging to an engine was flung against my bulkhead with such force as to shatter four of the boards. From the time the second row began to its close was thirty-fve minutes, and all the time each beast and animal was uttering his own peculiar war cry. The row was brought to close in peculiar man. ner. The bears had kept clear of the fight as long as possible, but when finally forced into it both tackled the big elephant as the party responsible for the situation. As they did so he rushed full tilt at one of the big doors, and carried it out with him, and took himself up the wharf to the main street with one of the bears fastened to hind leg. Such of the wild beasts as were not too badly injured at once broke for the door. One of the tigers and both of the partners were dead in the ware house. The other tigers escaped through the town and were killed miles away day or two subsequently,. One of the lions was dead, and the other, instead of bolting up the street as he went out, ran along the wharf and leaped aboard a coasting schooner a hundred yards away. One of the matches was open, and he leaped down, and next day was shot in his hiding place. Two of the five hyenas got out alive, and were killed next day while secreted under a barn. Not wolf was left alive, but the monkeys and serpents had climed aloft by the sup ports, and kept themselves out of the row.
 Of the two small elephants one had leg broken and the other had been so severely injured internally that he died before morning. The big one, togeth- CT with the two bears, kept right on through the town and beyond, where they separated. The bears were shot by the men who went in pursuit, while the elephant was captured and brought back, so generally knocked out that he was three months getting over it.
 It was six months after the adven- ture before we learned what brought it about. Then we ascertained that one of the discharged "Half Hots'' took this way to be revenged on me and the company. Standing at the window opposite the big elephant he had used hollow reed to blow little darts at him, and one of these had struck the monster in the right eye and made him furious.
 The warehouse was sight to behold the next morning. Over 300 barrels of flour had been smashed, the suga, was scattered from end to end, dry goods and groceries filtered the floor and the corn could never be separated from the sugar. The hams were abou the only things saved, and these ha6 been tossed to every point of the com pass. The all-around damage was esti mated at $1OO,OOO, and the man re sponsible for it died before he could b, brought to trial.