The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-12-29
ELEPHANT EABORERS
GIANT FAcHYpERMs THAT ACT AS
SAWMlLL HANDS.

They Drag the Logs Gut of the Water,
Guide the Carrier Under the Saw and
strok the Boards For Drying-some
Things Hard TO Believe.
The displays of trained animals, broken
for show purposes, cannot offer the slight
est comparison in interest to the trained
elephant exhibition one sees in the city of
Maulmain, British Burmah. The most
Accordingly entertaining feature of the
novel sight is the parodoxically industrial
character which e'work of these huge
Indian pschyderms assumes. 1t hardly
seems possible that the work of sawmill,
usually done by human hands, could be
accomplished through the medium Of the
elephants trunks and the elephants sa-
gacity. Nevertheless it is fact that the
Irawadi Steamship company uses some 40
to so elephants in the operation of its saw
mills at Maulmain, and the lockwood so
largely entering into the construction of
ships is here made ready for the artisan.
A gentleman lately returned from tour
of the east gives an interesting account of
the msnner in which the mills are oper-
ated. The logs are chopped in the interior
and hoated several hundred miles down
the SalwiE river to the mill, which is sit
uated on the banks of the stream at Maui
main. Here the logs are formed into a
boom, and henceforth the work of trans
porting is done by the elephants. The
boom is very similar to those we see in the
numbering districts of Wisconsin and
Michigan, but instead of the sight of men,
brightly CARRIED in red and blue, running
from log to log and moving them with
long steel pointed poles, we seejgreat, pom
derous elephants wading and swimming
among the teak logs and pushing them to-
ward the shore. The logs are not sawed
directly from the water, hut are first sea-
soned, and the elephants not only bring
the logs from the water to the land, but
also stack them in huge piles, convey them
to the mill, saw them and afterward pile
the lumber. OF course, each elephant per
forms only such certain parts of the work
for which he has been trained, and the en-
tire herd is divided into companies of from
two to eight One division of the pachy-
derms does the work in the water, another
company carries the logs to the drying or
seasoning stacks, others pile them; anoth-
er class conveys the dry logs to the mill,
where some of the elephants do the work
of saving; still others pile She sawed lum-
Der, and another herd carries hay and pre-
pares the food for this great industrial
combination of brute strength and intelli-
gence.
But the most wonderful, interesting,
novel and almost incredible feature of the
entire combination is the sight of two mon
strously large male elephants that actual
ly act in the capacity Of bosses or overseers
of the work. These move from place to
place among the working elephants, spur
ring them on, pushing, driving and fire.
quently chastising lazy or recalcitrant
member of tbs force. Very few men are
needed to direct the elephants in their
work. From six to eight of the animals
usually work in tie water. These wade
or swim, according to the depth of the wa
ter, to the log boom, and ioosening several
logs at time tow them to the shore at
a certain point. Each Of the company Of
elephants that convey the logs from this
point to the drying place has chain at
tached to his neck and reaching to the
ground. At the bottom Of this chain is a
loop through which the log is run. A
man directs the movements of the ele-
plants in placing the log within the coil
of the chain. The elephant picks up an
other log by his trunk and in this manner
drags two at time to the seasoning
stacks. About eight elephants are EN-
ployed in this capacity. The work of pill
ing the logs to dry is done by two female
elephants. Each winds her trunk about
the log near the end, and together they
raise it in horizontal position and place
it on the stack.
After the logs have dried sufficiently
they are ready for the mill. Two female
elephants take the dry logs from the piles
and deliver them to herd similar in train
ing to those that work between the water
and the seasoning stacks. These convey
the logs to track over which small car
runs to the mill. Only one log at a time
is placed upon this car. AS soon as the
log is in position on the car an elephant
trained for this particular part of the work
pushes the car to the mill. Arrived at the
mill, the log is pushed from the car to a
carrier that passes beneath the buzzsaw.
AS soon as the log is thus transferred to
the carrier the elephant operating the car
returns for another log, while another huge
beast trained to do the saving operates
the carrier and pushes the log against the
saw. But the interesting part of the work
does not end here, for as the log is being
sawed into the desired boards and tim
bers, another elephant receives the COM
pleted material, piling the slabs on one
side and the more valuable product on the
other. But two men are required to over
see and direct the. elephants in saving the
logs.
Another detachment of the herd is used
in carrying the lumber from the mill to
the yards and sheds. For this purpose very
long trucks with the low front and back
wheels close to each other are used. There
are elephants trained for loading the sawed
material upon these trucks, while others
push the loaded trucks to the sheds. In
the lumber yard are the Hpilers," or ele-
plants that take the lumber from the
trucks and place it in piles for further sea
soning.
AS stated before, there is one detachment
of this strange army Of laborers which
does the Kitchen work" for the hotel de ell
ephant, or whatever the feeding place OF
these big fellows may be called. Some may
be seen carrying hay for the stables, but
| by far the most interesting sight is the
preparation Of the food. This is composed
of grass, bran and molasses, and is mixed
in large vat. While some are carrying
these different components of this highly
delectable elephantine boarding house
hash, others are engaged in mixing 1t with
pestles, which they dexterously manipu-
late with their trunks. The narrator OBJ
served one of the elephants suddenly STOP
in his work with the pestle and refuse to