Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-11-26
ENTIRELY REFORMED.
A0W n Elephant Was Instrumental h
Rsdeeming Drunkard.

How n Elephant Was Instrumental h
Rsdeeming . Drunkard.
One Of the strangest stories of drunk
ards reformation 10 told in the Philadelphia
1Ss~ss. William H, aprosperous trades
man Of Eastern Pennsylvania, lost his
property through unforeseen business
troubles, and, leaving his young family,
went West to retrieve bis fortune; but dis
couraged by want OF SUCCESS, he took to
drink, and finally became . degraded
loafer. He drifted eastward again, and was
seen in Troy, N. z, hanging around liquor
saloons. He bad lost his manhood. and
even his very name (having long been
ashamed 70 be called by it), and men knew
him - "The Worm Of the Still"
Once, soon after the arrival Of circus
and menagerie combination to exhibit in
the city, the drunkard saw one of the keep
srs purchase pailful Of whisky for sick
elephant, and snesked after him to the
circus tent, following the impulse Of his
raging thirst.
The keeper put the bucket Of whisky
down before "Betsy," the sick elephant,
and she drank about half Of it, The intelli-
gent brute knew 1t was medicine, and did
not propose to take more Of it than she
thought she needed. The bucket, still half
full Of hquor, was left standing hear her,
and the keepers attention was called away
for moment.
hardly was his back turned when .
bloatsd, red face was poked through under
the canvas, and its pair Of watery eyes
were fastened greedily upon the bucket.
Betsy fixed her keen little eyes on the in
truder, stopped swaying to- and fro, and
waited to see what he would do.
He did not notice her. The fascination OF
the whisky blinded him to every thing else.
The bucket was beyond his reach He
drew himself under the tent until he could
clutch Il. The instant that he did 30, Betsy
flung her powerful trunk around his waist,
and whirled him up in the air.
She did not mean him any harm, but be
was tampering with her medicine, and she
would not stand that So he had barely
time to give one wild shrek Of terror, when
she tossed him thirty feet away, where he
struck against one Of the ponderous wheels
Of . lion cage, fell to the earth with one leg
broken, and three fractured ribs. She die
not attempt to follow and hurt him, for she
had no malice. He was carried away on
stretcher 70 the hospital.
The rest Of the story ID . pathetic
romance. The wretched mans recovery
was 70 slow that fifteen weeks passed DO
fore he could walk on crutches; but IN tha
long time the thorough hospital treatment
hld cieansed all the liquor out OF hun, ane
he bad begun 70 look something Ike hi'
former self.
One day, when . party Of ladies visltes
the hospital, distributing flowers and reaa
ing matter TO the patients, one OF them'
handsome but sad-faced young woman
stopped by his chair, and gased at him as
strangely startled.
'Fsther," she said, "you don't rememoe
me. ! am your daughter Mary"
1t was twelve years since she had see'
him, but she knew him.
She had him conveyed TO her home q
soon ~ possible, where, in time, he was re
stored 70 health. found good employment
and began . new life Of sobriety ana IL
dustry, which continued 70 the last
His adventure with the elephant, 90 near
y fatal 70 him, proved the means Of ms On
Tire reformation.