Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-10-22
AN ePHANT SWALLOWED WHOLE,
rnIe of an Eye Witness-Unavsilings a-
Eacity OF the Doomed Brute.

sDid ever see an elephant die?"
said the keeper, repeating the \. Y.
Tribune reporters question. We'll,
did and | didn't"
How was that?" asked the reporter
feeling for his notebook.
Il did not see him actually die re-
nlied the keeper, without the vestipe
If smile. He was living when |
lost sight of him. He was swallowed
alive.
This is going to be a pretty stiff
warn. keeper" remarked the reporter
as shade of disappointment crossed
MS face. 81 guess | won't need the
notebook You saw him swallowed
alive. eh2 always thought YOU were
an antiquity; | never suspected YOU to
be antediluvian. W hat did it-a
meralusaurus"
~Neyer heard of such a thing, said
che keeper, gruflly. This VAS a quick
sand.
aOh, a quicksand! Go on, old man.
responded the reporter delighted, as
he pulled out pencil or two. Tell
Ms all about it.
at was in India, said the old keeper.
Swhere | learned a 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 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 bazaar to another. They did not
know of the quickSand and could not
understand why their elephant did not
come out of the stream which he had
almost crossed. When they learned
the predcament he was in their howls
of grief and despair were ear-splitting.
Isuryestcd 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
Hunder water. Then, with a mighty
effort, dragging up one foot out of the
sucking he would put ito the bundle
of fagOts and press it down. lie got a
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
"IIs master procured a small boat
and pJled il out to him. Then they
took all his load of goods of, put them
En- tile boat aud brought them ashore.
This lessencd his weight a good deal,
but the sand was by that time above
bis 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
individual in the crowd. | cannot
help thinking of an elephant as a per-
son, 40 one can who has been with
them and witnessed their intelligence
i As m0eh as | have.
collecting some floating boards
which mad been thrown out to him. he
made % sort of raft of them with his
trunk and rested his big head upon
them. Ii was no use. however He
=
long She water covered his mouth
Then he lifted his long trunk and
hurled it back over his forehead Tho
water filled his ears and he Tapped
them vigorously for a time Soon it
reached his exclusives and then his big,
burning eyes, just at the waters edge,
tools on pItiable expression, They
seemed to beseech aid and succor from
those he had served so long and so
faithfully, and his masters fairly groy.
e,ea in the dust as they yelled TO their
gods and frothel ut the mouth in their
frantic Indian way of expressing sOr-
ro" The tears came into my own
eyes as l looked at the old fellow and
knew there was no help for him.
"As the water covered His eyes his
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
Ole. / tell YOU. Have you heard
horses scream i'm a burning building?
tits almost human. So was the old
fellows death-cry. The end was close
at band His long trunk still waved
wildly above the water but nothing
else Of him was visible. Its length
grew less and less, aud finally the wa
terpoured over the top Of it. One
more bu5bling, choking gasling
scream threw the water out again in
loa high jet, but that effort was the
last The stream quickly filled up his
only channel to the air above, and the
gil elephant was buried before he was
dead. ] could have watched a dozen
natives swallowed up in the same way
without feeling half as bad about it."