The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-12-17
HUGE BEASTS AT WORK
HOW BIG ELEPHANTS ARE UTIL-
lied III BURMAH.
lifting and Carrying Huge Logs in
Lumber Yards - Wonderful In
teIIigence Displayed by Them.

hunDGF \ AfthS 49, w
teIligence Displayed by Them.
Both Siam end Burmah have seen
their best days as the so-called lands of
the White Elephant, says Frank G.
Carpenter in the American Agricutturist.
visited the noted beasts in the palace
of the King at Bangkok and looked in
vain for gold-tipped harness, gorgeous
trappings and shower baths Of altar of
roses which they are tabled to receive.
found four great beasts whose skins were
more the color of Maltese cat than
white, and who were mottled with spots
like a leper Each Of these beasts was
bound to post by huge rope instead
of golden chains, and skinned
half-naked men each wearing dirty rag
about his waist, acted as their keepers in
the place of the liveried servants which
they are said to have had in the past.
All the elephants of Siam belong to the
King, and this was the same in Burmah
before the English occupation. By con-
quest Queen Victoria has now the right
to the elephants of Burmah, and the
beasts are bought and sold and used in
the clearing of lands, and in some cases
in plowing. The elephant plow in a
wo-wheeled affair with heavy share,
and the elephant is harnessed to it by
ropes. The King of Siam has a band of
elephant troops, and the travelling
through the interior of Farther
India must be done by elephants.
A good travelling elephant will make
about five miles an hour and will travel
whole day without firing. The ele-
phant has stomach somewhat akin to
that of a camel in that he can store away
quantity of water for future use, and he
often takes enough from his stomach to
give himself shower bath with his
trunk. visited a large lumber yard at
Rangoon where a number of elephants
were employed in working, and l was
told that they were used IN much the
same way clearing land, making roads
aud building bridges. have never seen
more intelligent animals, and in their
work they showed the evidence of high
reasoning powers and they used their
wonderful strength with great skill. The
lumber yard was as large as one of the
biggest of those of Michigan, and the
logs which were sawed into boards were
great trunks of teak-wood trees, some of
which were several feet in diameter.
There were two elephants to each saw
mill. Each of these beasts was as big as
the largest animal one sees in an Ameri-
can circus. A driver in turban and waist
cloth sat upon the head of each and di-
rected him by prodding him with a brass
hook and by rubbing his heel this wav
and that over his forehead. Tn~., ...-
no harness used and the elephants lifted
and carried the logs upon their tusks
wrapping their trunks around them in
order to hold them there. l saw
one pick up log twenty feet
long, two feet thick, and as heavy as the
hardest hickory tree of that size have
even seen, and carry it a hundred yards
across the grounds and carefully place it
on a truck which was to roll it against
the saw. In one place l saw elephants
piling up logs and they laid them one
above another as evenly as though they
were natural mathematicians and were
working by measure. After the pile had
reached the height of their heads they
put the logs on top by lifting one end
and laying it on the pile and then placing
their tusks under the other end would
move it off the ground so that they could
get kick at it with their hind foot and
would send it flying into place in this
manner The elephants gather up the
scraps of lumber and lay them in piles,
and am told where they can be used
in farming they show the same wonder
full intelligence. They are too costly to
be common beasts of burden. as a good
working elephant is worth $1,000. 1t
takes an immense amount of food to
keep them, and each one of the beasts at
this sawmill ate a half bushel of grain
and two hundred pounds of green stuff
every day. Although they seem so
strong they are liable to disease and are
very delicate. They have their baths
regularly twice day, and when
the bell rings for meals they
drop their work as quick as any
farm hand at the pillow, or any foundry
mechanic does when the whistle blows.
Some of them live to the age of ninety
years. They frequently last but few
years after being captured. The cap
turing is done by the assistance of the
tame elephants. The animals go in
droves, and stockade or corral is built
in the woods and large band of men
drive the elephants into this. Then men
upon tame elephants ride in among them
and succeed in fastening them to the
trees when they are tortured into sub
mission. The animals / saw in Burmah
had very large tusks, aud the tusks of
the Burmese elephants sometimes weigh
as high as fifty pounds. They are not,
however, so long as those Of these of the
elephants OF Africa, and the beasts are
not usually as large. Still, Jumbo came
from Father India, and he was, am
told, insane when he was sold. An in
sane elephant is called by the Burmese a
"Rogue" elephant, and nearly all the
white elephants are insane. The differ
/, ence in color comes from a disease, but
the Burmese think it a miracle of nature.
The people worship a white elephant
from a superstition connected with the
Buddhist religion. This is that IN the
transmigration of souls those of the
purest and greatest Of men so into white
animals, and inasmuch as the elephant is
the greatest OF beast, white one must
p contain the soul of some dead xino or