The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-03-18

Poor Little Annie Rooney IS dying at
the plow works.
Little Annie is not the heroine of that
song that has delighted American audien-
ces SO much and so long. The fact is Little
Annie Rooney Is no more nor less than
baby elephant owned by Joseph McMahon.
the circus man who is winterlng in this
city.
Friday Annie was the picture OF health;
today she is laying low with
fever and tomorrow she may be in her
grave cue down in the spring time of her
youth TO rise no more, Her case Is a sad
one. Only Is months old aud il. 900 miles
away from her native land. Burning with
II fever without a father or mother, sister
or brother TO comfort her in her distress.
Little Annie is not large of her age.
She weighs only 1000 pounds
but is growing She would have been
larger and heavier but when she was three
weeks old a heartleSs En- zlishman muir
dered her mother in cold blood in the Jun
giles of India and through this means she
Was thrown upon the cold charity OF the
world, her father having been previously
abducted by Yankee circus man. Indeed
II Is said OF the father that he was no good
anyway aud made no effort to provide for
his offspring. He would hang around the
jungles all day and wallow in the mud and
depended on the mother OF Aunie to do all
y -
elephant took Annie VIII III she became an
orphan. This female used to so out in the
Juugles on Sunday evenings with Annie's
mother and fiirt with the gay young eie-
plants of the tribe. She made a good
match and when she became aware of little
Annie's misfortune. the remembrance of
her companion touched soft spot in
her heart and she took Annie to raise. All
went we'll for about six weeks when Annie
wandered out into the fields one day to
play and never returned. A band of trav-
cling Turks kidnapped her and
sold her to an American dealer in
elephants. At the age of eighteen weeks
landed at New York about fifteen months
ago. Joseph McMahan happened to be
there at the time and saw her She was a
comedy little baby and he bought her for
s., 900. Since then he has treated her with
that consideration due to her rank, for she
was of a noble family on the mothers side
her great-grandfather being a nephew OF
one of the royal elephants owned by "a ns-
tive princes living "a few hundred miles
from Bagdad.
Yesterday morning her attendant, a red
haired believer In Saint PatrIck's famous
snake story, ran breathless into the Met
ropole hotel and called for Mr.. McMahon.
He announced with tears in his eyes that
baby Rooney was dying with the whoOp-
ing cough. and asked Mr.. McMahon for
the Lords sake to send her a nurse.
During the night the baby elephant was
taken with raging fever. She rolled
around i'll her little bed OF straw in great
pain. Some times she tried to commit
suicide and butted the brick wall with
her head until she had almost worn hole
through it. Patsy Riley, her attendant,
tried to pacify her but she would not
listen to him aud at one time she made "A |
dive for him and would have killed him |
were it not for his agility in jumping over |
one of the FORCES of the pillow works. Worn |
ous at last she lay down and began 10 |
groan some of the most terrible groans |
ever heard in a civilized land. Her moan |
ing and grooming was plainly heard by the |
Waterman Of the stock yards who thought |
the end of the world had come, for he never |
before heard such a noise.
When Mr.. McMahan reached her yes |
terday morning her temperature was SO
high that when he laid his hand upon her |
the effect was like that of touching a
steam boiler The temperature of an ele-
plant gets very high, and it Is
hardly ever fatal until the body
gets so hot that a man can't keep his hand
On it.
The menagerie physician was out of the
city on a visit 10 st. Paul and nobody else
could administer her medicine with safety
The medicines tor elephants are brought |
rom India and are quite numerous. In
The case of fever a tea is given that is
made from the leaves OF a kind Of brush that
grows in the jungles called Peckiwsae.
These leaves are put in big tue of rain
water with a little water and pounded
With something like fence post into a
pulp. When the juice is all out water is
added till an egg will sink and then the
elephant Is made to drink il. IL is no
,asy matter to make an elephant
AXE medicine either for when
hey are sick they are stubborn creatures.
The ingenuity of man, however, over
'omes their stubberness and by the Use of
little root they are made TO take their
Medicine without much trouble. This
iot is called the Tioyi root, and is also