The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-08-10
AN ELEPHANT SWALLOWED WHOLE
Tale of an ye-Witness-Unayailing Sa-
gacity of the Doomed Brute.

"Did I ever see an elephant diep"
said the keeper, repeating the N. 7.
Tribune reporters question. well,
did and I didn't"
"How was that?" asked the reporter,
feeling for his notebook.
81 did not see him actually die" re-
piled the keeper, without the vestige
of smile. @He was living when I
lost sight of him. He was swallowed
alive"
"This is going to be a pretty stiff
yarn, keeper" remarked the reporter,
as shade of disappointment crossed
his face. 81 guess / won't need the
notebook. You saw him swallowed
alive, ehp always thought you were
an antiquity; I never suspected you to
be antediluvian. What did tia
megalosaurus?
aNever heard of such thing" said
the keeper, grufiy. @This was quick
sand"
@Oh, quicksandl Go on, old man,"
responded the reporter. delighted, as
he pulled out pencil or two. Tell
US all about it.
at was in India, said the old keeper.
"where 1 learned good deal about
elephants, never thinking that it would
come useful to me in Barnum's menag-
erie in after years. Elephants are
common beasts of burden there and
on this day a heavily loaded one was
crossing shallow but broad stream
by .wading. The sagacious brute had
refused to step on badly constructed
bridge which the natives had erected,
but his instinct did not warn him of
dangerous quicksand which the waters
concealed near the farther shore.
81 was attracted to the scene by the
shouts of his owners, five Indian mer-
chants, whose wares he carried from
one bazar to another. They did not
know of the quicksand and could not
understand why their elephant did net
come out of the stream which he had
almost crossed. When they learned
the predicament he was in their howls
| of grief and despair were ear-splitting.
suggested that bundles of turf and
branches be thrown to the elephant,
and it was done. The old fellow,
seemingly aware of his danger, took
each bundle with his trunk and thrust
it under water. Then, with mighty
effort, dragging up one foot out of the
sucking he would put it on the bundle
of fagots and press it down. He got
lot of them under him in this way
with more skill and precision than you
would think possible, but the soft sand
took them all in and still let him down
further into its depths.
"His master procured a small boat
and poled it out to him. Then they
took all his load of goods off, put them
| in the boat and brought them ashore.
| -, L.
| but the sand was by that time above
| his shoulders and soon his entire back
was covered by the water. Only his
| head showed now, and still the old
| fellow was the only calm and collected
help thinking of an elephant as per-
| son; no one can who has been with
them and witnessed their intelligence
as much as | have.
| collecting some floating boards
which had been thrown out to him, he
made sort of raft of them with his
trunk and rested his big head upon
| them. 1t was no use, however. He
was doomed and we knew it. Before
| long the water covered his mouth.
Then he lifted his long trunk and
hurled it back over his forehead. The
water filed his ears and he tapped
| them vigorously for time. Soon it
reached his eyelashes and then his big,
burning eyes, just at the waters edge,
took on pitiable expression. They
seemed to beseech aid and succor from
those he had served so long and SO
faithfully, and his masters fairly grow
eled in the dust as they yelled to their
gods and frothed at the mouth in their
frantic Indian way of expressing sor-
row. The tears came into my own
eyes as looked at the old fellow and
knew there was no help for him.
"As the water covered his ewes hi-
courage gave way at last, and he ut
tered a piercing scream of fright
through the trunk and repeated it
several times. 1t made my blood cur
die. tell you. Have you heard
horses scream in burning building?
1t is almost human. So was the old
fellows death-cry. The end was close
at hand. His long trunk still waved
wildly above the water, but nothing
else of him was visible. Its length
i. grew less and less, and finally the wa
ter poured over the top of it. One
more bubbling, choking, gasping
scream threw the water out again in
to high Jet, but that effort was the
last. The stream quickly filled up his
only channel to the air above, and the
old elephant was buried before he was
dead. l could have watched a dozen
natives swallowed up in the same way
without feeling half as bad about it.