The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-24
THE RAT RAN UP THE TRUNK.
It Wa. an Elephants Trunk. and She
 Struck Everything Within Reach.

HNc HllHulSa III shs pih sANee ssith ae Central Park yesterday morning than a dozen men could repair. in twenty four hours. The rat ran up the trunk af Jess. the big female elephant. and she did the rest.
 Just how 1t happened no one seems 10 know. but when the first wild yell was given. and the dust had settled. a score or more of frightened employees found two animal cages upset, and their bars bent and twisted. the canvas of the mcnagerie tent sagging to the ground in the place where the poles had been knocked out. and a path of ruin leading to where the big doors that close the Eighth street entrance had been burst open and smashed into kin ding wood.
 Jess was gone. Where she had gone The fact that she was loose in the streets of a big city was sufficient pro- vocation for the widest conjectures. for an elephant without a master can do more damage In given time than a dozen runaway locomotives.
 At the first sound of the commotion one of the animal trainers, George Knight, groped his way out of the big tent and was just in time to See Jess demolish the doors and disappear into the street. He followed, running. and was joined at the entrance by Manager William Sells, who had been eating his supper In a restaurant across the street. They gave chase to the elephant. which had taken the center of the street and was going toward Howard street at a lively gait, waving her trunk high In the air and trumpeting loudly at every stride. By great burst of speed MT. Sells and Knight overlook Jess as she was crossing Mission street, but she paid no more attention to their frantic orders of Down! Down. Jess" than If they had not been in existence
 At Howard street she turned west, maintaining the same swinging pace, and with the two men still hanging on, one on either side. Both men have had considerable experience with elephants and neither could understand why Jess kept her trunk high in the air and why all her actions indicated pain and fright not anger. The explanation came later.
 On up Howard street she rattled, the fragment of the broken chain by which she had been tethered jingling merrily tla etN I1xy hn- lated wayfarer would come in view, but when he beheld the big bulk forg- ing toward him and heard the shrill trumpetings he would disappear over the nearest fence, to be seen no more.
 Just about Tenth street Jess turned into blind alley in which were stand ing lot of wagons belonging to a con- tractor. These she overturned as fast as she came to them. At the end of the alley is watering trough, and into this Jess plunged her trunk. Half its contents were drawn up and then squirted out against the caves of an ad- joining house. The brute evidently gained no relief from this operation, for she overturned the trough and started for the street again, pushing aside MT. Sells and his companion, who were still trying to get control of her.
 Out Howard street again the chase led, but when Eleventh street was reached Jess stopped short and began to beat her trunk on the stones of the street. Knigh. approached, and after great difficulty he coaxed the elephant to allow him to examine her trunk. He found something resembling slate pencil in size and shape protruding about an inch from the hollow end of the member. Thinking this might be the cause of the trouble he took firm hold of it, gave a stiff jerk, and out came-a rat.
 The little animal that had caused so much trouble was not yet dead, but nearly so and when Jess saw it she gave every evidence of satisfaction that an elephant can give. She was con- was contentedly masticating a dozen loaves of fresh bread that had been brought from a neighboring bakers shop she permitted the attendants who had come up with ropes to hobble her. She was afterward led back to her quarters without the least trouble, and when the children from the orphan asylums fed her peanuts in the after noon she looked the mildest-mannered elephant that ever wrecked a tent.
 During all my experience in the show business" said MT. Sells, "I have never seen or heard of a like occur renee. Jess has always been a good natured animal, and has never devel- oped any vicious traits. She follows her Burmese trainer, Elephant Bill, around like a dog, and any of the anil nal men can handle her.
 "I suppose the rat ran in her trunk while she was asleep. An elephant sleeps with it's trunk lying straight out along the ground, and suppose when the rat ran in she contracted the mus cles of her trunk and held him fast. Her trainer always sleeps with her, but he was away last night. and when she failed to find him she became panic stricken. If he had been there she would have at once indicated to him
 yhat the trouble was and he would have relieved her. As it was we were extremely fortunate fin securing her be- fore more damage was done"