New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-04
VIE AND THE ELEPHANT.

- -, nature makes the whole world
kin. which is why the heart OF the en0iIe "ounVAS
is to-day warming toward the faculty Oh i"io WI
1oco On Tuesday our dispatches told how the
students of Yale grossly insulted Barnums elc-
phants by peting them with torpedoee' 1eS'e1-
day we printed another dispatch from Ne"-h"'en
saving that the faculty regarded the anron' puV on
the elephants as o very serious matter, anu .n@O
they had summoned twenty-five OF tne onehuers
before them and intended to punish the culprltS.
When the news first came Of the collegiate out
rage on the elephants, people everywhere were
shocked. This is indeed too much was the
general exclamation Of the whole country college,
students have been allowed to do everything else,
but il was never thought that they would thus
wantonly attack the harmless and necessary ele-
phant. Periodically, college students han XII
some superAuous freshman by hazing him. III
happens every few months in different parU OIL
the country that theatrical performances are broken
nm bv parties of college students Only a lew
weeks ago crowd Of Columbia students stopped
a play in one of our city theatres by nuhor-
ously pelting the actors with fruit, Vegetables,
and so forth, and afterward they wlttlly chased
one of the leading actresses along the street 'lI
sho was compelled to take refuge indoors. Con
FINALLY throughout the year college students pay
fully steal front gates, introduce donkeys, caves
and other inferior beasts into the rooms OF their
teachers. paint the college statues, and IN other
ways display their gentle manners and scholarly
attachments Only last week the statue oil John
Harvard received another coat of red paint But
TO all Of these things, hazing rlotlng ana pain
barbarism nobody ever makes the lenst Objection
II is the overflow Of animal spirits natural TO youth
But when college students jumped on the ele-
nbant they were going too far. The faculty saw
49, fo11- hn
thrown their torpcdoes at the people who were
looking OF the elephants, the act might readily
have been traced to the exuberance of youth, but
under the circumstances never. The circus ele-
plant is one of our most sacred institutions In
three-ouarters of the States the Legislature adj
onrns TO 20 and see him. Usually the courts
close. and the public schools enjoy holiday. In
Missouri. If we are not wrongly informed, circus
dav is a legal holiday, ranking with Christmas and
the Fourth of July. In Texas the petit jury and
the prisoner 40 to the circus under charge OF the
sheriff. and the Judge has reserved seat ana
gets down and rides the trick mule. This Is the
first time that the breath of insult ever touched
the circus elephant, and probably it will be the
last The evidence against the students Is con-
elusive One Of the professors was hinself fol-
lowing the elephants. He saw the rude torpedoes
rain against the defenceess sides of the poor
pachyderms. II the torpedoes had struck him, he
would not have complained, but his heart bled
for the innocent elephants. lie carefully noted
the barbarous students, and they will be punished.
The college student paint the State House
in Boston red he can drive out the congregation
of Trinity Church in New-Yorl1 with tin horns
he can blow up the National Capitol in Washing
ton with dynamite, and nothing will be said about
it; but he cannot, while the Republic shall en-
dure, throw toy torpedoes at the elephants without
swift and condign punishment following his sac
rilege