St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-12
POISON FOR AN ELEPHANT.
TIP THE cEN7R Il PIRK MxN KILLER.
IS DRUcGED.
HE DIES AFTER A STRUGGLE.
The Big Elephant Eats Several
Balls of Bran Containing Cya-
hide of Potassium and Dies In
Twelve Minutes He Suffers
From Commissions and Expires
in Great Agony.

Twelve Minutes = He Suffers
From Commissions and Expires
1'eA' agony DC
NEW YORK. May 11.-Tip is dead.
He died from the effects o. poison at
4:l9 p. M. today. After he had given
up the ghost, the authorities waited al,
hour TO be positive that Tip was not
shamming before they permitted the
members of the press to view the de-
ceased. He lay OH the floor, and di-
rectly over his head WAS his card. where
1t had been placed some years ago. l.
read:
Zip. Asiatic elephant, Eliphas lndi.
Gus, presented Jau. /, 1889, 10y Adaan
Forepaugh, Philadelphia"
The execution was in private, news
papers being excluded. at is an out
rageods star chamber proceeding,"
chimed all the scribes of Gotham. 1T
was a questions of saving all your lives"
said Park Commissioner Bell, two hours
later, flor if IA drop of the elephants
saliva had touched the mem-
b-ane of any of you, the eye or the
lip. there would have been a dead
mar almost i'll an instant" George
b. Burns, assistant superintendent
of the m%enagerie. told the story briefly.
"All through the day we tried to adj
minister the poison, cyanide of potas-
SUM, by one means or another, but did
no succeed. At last we decided on
bran. using it i'll small capsules. Snyder
lna6a ny halls nf v,ot hron -, oD.l, 49,,
of which was placed a capusula Of five
grains cyanide of potassium. They
were placed in the ordinary pail in
which food had been given him before.
AT 4:071a O'clock he put his trnnk in
the pail and
TAKING Up A BALI
of the bran blew it down his throat,
several others followed. and then he
stopped. Something seemed to affect
him. He moved to the front of the
cage and rubbed his side against the
bars, then he trumpeted once or twice
and at the end of Jour minutes seemed
to 20 into a convulsion, his bndy swelled
and his efforts to strain and burst the
chain We're tremendous. Finally the
chain that e around his body
burst. Getting down on the floor. he
dragged himself toward the door of the
cage, until at the end of his chain which
secured his foreleg to two of the front
bars. he stumbled and fell. He did lot
go down with a crash, however, but
went over Oil his side front first, stiff
ened out and died in just twelve min
utes from the time he sook the first bali
of wet bran.
I'VE had at first decided to use hydro
cyanic acid, but finally decided to use
the cyanide of potassium, not only be-
cause it was tastelesS and inOdorous,,
but chiefly for the reason that it was
not dangerous to the operators making
the dissection. The use of the hydro
cyanic acid wonld make the whole
carcass a deadly poison. Besides we
have now demonstrated that this is an
easy and humane way of Kill ling
elephants. Before the informal
ton was Impaired the dissectors.
eight in number. under the direction of
John ROwley. chief taXidermist of the
museum, had commenced their work.so
that before the sun rises tomorrow Tip
will be divided up. His hide and skele-
ton will go to DR.. William Wallace. to
be placed alongside Jumbo in the lnu-
scum of natural history; his Viscera
will go 10 DIR. Huntington. in the col
lege Of physicians and surgeons, and his
eyes to the eye and ear ~inirmary."