St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-13
CARE OF ELEPHANTS.
Their Treatment When Sick and
When Well.


William Newton could, we think, give
points as far as the care of elephants
goes. to the head equerry of the king of
Dude. We know now that the elephant
ranges over wide area and thrives in
fairly elevated lands near the snow
levels. In this country, and IN
all geological collections, he attains
fair old age. Their trouble, MIR. Newton
told us, was tendency to chills. You
had to be careful how you watered
them. If the water was too cold they
were taken with a collie; generally
good, stiff drink of rum brings them
round"
"And what might you call a good, stiff
drink?" [ asked.
'Oh. a gallon"
"Show any signs of jollity?"
mot bit. AS sober as judges. [
take as many blankets as | can get, and
steep them in hot water and bind them
around the elephant, and when he's
swaddled up that way he looks huge.
An elephant will take gallon of oil.
He may be sensible animal in some
respects, but not in all. If he picks
up nail in his foot, which
happens pretty often, he will stop
right away and show you
his trouble and let you take it out for
him, and seems sort of grateful, but he
doesn't banker after medicine. The
way we work him is to make him open
his mouth. The oil we put i'll galvan-
lied iron bottle, and we place that on
his tongue, force his head backward,
and down goes the oil. No harm ever
is done with the prOds. 1t takes fouror
five hands to make an elephant take his
medicine.
II have always remembered a very
clever book of Charles Reade's, Jack
of All Trades" which gave rather
sinister view of an elephant. And re-
call, too great deal OF nonsense writ
ten about the cruelty of elephant prods
1t would be absurd to try and manage
an animal of such prodigious powers
the strongest we know of-with a
riding-switch, and prods are necessities
An elephant knows his keeper and
obeys him; may show kind of respect
with some little affection for his mas
ter, but he has no liking for strangers.
If | were left alone with any show ele-
phant, the keeper being absent, should
at once beat a hastY retreat. Never
through curiosity or carelesSDeSS get
yourself between an elephant and
wall, or you may have the life crushed
out of you, the upshot of which is that
oriental mahOOtS or American keepers
must have prods, and it is also fortu-
nate for man that elephants have senSi-
tive ears,
"Qnarreling among elephants is not
common, but we are careful not to put
the males together. Their tempers diff
fer; the females, however, are rarely
cross. In certain seasons we watch the
males very carefully, for they become
very dangerous. There is an elephant
we cured of broken leg. 1t was long
job. We slung him and used
splints and plaster. Elephants run
down in flesh in summer be-
cause we work them and they are
good deal Knocked about, but in winter
they pick up. The tuskS of the female.
which are short, have ragged ends and
inflict ugly wounds. When they are
Scared we use carbolic salve. When
they stand for long time we have to
cut their toes and the soles of ther feet.
We use rasp and chisel. and do not
have any trouble
When at Central park Mr.. Conklin
asked me to guess the circumference of
an elephants foot. | was ten inches
out of the way. Taking the fine brute
Tom into the menageTle, the keeper
passed cord around one of his forefeet,
and its circumference was four feet
eight inches. That" said the
superintendent, fought to repre-
sent, when multiplied by two,
Toms greatest elevation" There
upol a second elevation YVES taken, and
Toms height was nine feet four inches.
l have had circle with this circumfer-
ence drawn in chalk ON the floor. and it
occupied about the room of an ordinary
tete-a-tete tea table. The greatest di-
ameter is only obtainable when the ele-
plant is on his feet: then there Is an
expansion of his massive toes. The
books give the foot circumference as one
of the rough ways used in India to get
at the height of an elephant.