Little Falls transcript., 1892-05-20
IN A QUICKSAND.
AN ELEPHANT SWALLOWED WHOLE
Z BY TREAcHERoUs MUD.

+ BY TREACHEROUS MUD.
The Unavailing sagacity of the Doomed
= Creature-Calm in the Midst Of DAN
ger, the Intelligent Brute Grew Fright
ened Only at the Very Last.
"Did I ever see an elephant die?" said
the keeper, repeating reporters ques-
ton. "Well, did and l 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
q smile. "He was living when l lost
sight of him. He was swallowed alive"
"This is going to be pretty stiff yarn.
keeper" remarked the reporter, as
shade of disappointment crossed his
face. Il guess I won't need the note
book. You saw him swallowed alive,
eh3 always thought you were an an
tiquity, l never suspected you to be an
tediluvian. What did it. a megalo-
saurus?"
"Never heard of such thing" said
the keeper grufay. "This was quick
sand"
"Oh, a quicksandl Go on, old man."
responded the reporter, delighted, as he
pulled out pencil or two. Tell us all
about it"
1T was in India" said the old keeper.
"where l learned good deal about ele-
plants, never thinking that it would
come useful to me in after years. Ele-
plants are common beasts Of burden
there, and on this day heavily loaded
one was crossing q shallow but broad
stream by wading. The sagacious brute
had refused to step on the badly con-
structed bridge which the natives had
erected, but his instinct did not. warn
him Of a dangerous quicksand which the
water concealed, near the farther bank
II 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
predicament he was in, their howls of
grief and despair were earsplitting.
suggested that bundles of turf and
branches be thrown to the elephant. and
this was DONE The old fellow, SEEM
ingly aware Of his danger, took each
bundle with his trunk and thrust it
under water. Then with u mighty ef-
fort dragging up one foot out of tho
sucking sand, he would put it Oh 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
farther into its depths.
"His master procured u 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. This
lessened his weight good deal, but the
sand was by that time up 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 aud collected individual
in the crowd. cannot help thinking of
an elephant as person; 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 a
sort OF raft Of them with his trunk and
| rested his big head on 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 curled it back over his FORE
head. 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 Oh a 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 sorrow.
The tears came into my own eyes as |
| looked at the old fellow and knew there
was no help for him.
LAS the water covered his eyes his
courage gave way at last, and he uttered
a piercing scream of fright through his
trunk and repeated it several times. 1t
made my blood curdle, tell you. Have
you heard horses scream in burning
building? It is almost human. So was
the old fellows death cry. The end was
close at hand. His long trunk still
waved wildly above tho water, but moth
ing else of him was visible. Its length
grew less and less, and finally the water
poured over the top of it.
Zone more bubbling. choked, gasping
scream threw the water out again into a
] 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. could
have watched dozen natives swallowed
up in the same way without feeling half
| as bad about it."-New York Tribune.