The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-09-14

hesitation, placing their feet exactly where
he had put his. The action is not the
result of training, but brute instinct
always displayed and bearing striking
resemblance to reason.
When Jumbo tried to butt fast freight
off from the Grand Trunk tracks in an
effort to save the baby of the Barnun
herd. Tom Thumb, and lost his life in
the attempt, it was said that his actions
gave unimstakable evidence of reason,
though it was poor testimony to his
judgment that he SO greatly underestima-
ted the force of the locomotive. He lived
long tenough after the crash, however,
to see that he could derail train even if
he could not equal it in power.
| In the matter of the food value OF
different materials, the reasoning power
of the elephant is very faulty, however.
HE WILL EAT ALMOST ANYTHING
that comes his way. If a canvassman
leaves coat or vest hanging on quarter
pole within reach of an elephant, the big
brute will edge over toward it and watch
an opportunity when unobserved to touch
| N.
haul it toward him, putting in rolls of
hay and chewing them between times.
AS soon as the garment is at his feet he
will put one of his ponderous fve-hoofed
pedals on it and begin to tear it up, roll
ing the pieces in his trunk and stuflng
them into his mouth. The sole Of a shoe
is just as good for him to chew on as
If ho1 h &c n
mischief inclines him to prefer that which
! he knows is forbidden him, even il it Is
| less succulent than bunch of grass.
When the show went to Australia in 1876,
one of the elephants was taken violently
| sick aboard ship, and died in terrible
pain. The veterinary could not determine
what the matter was until one of the
grooms confessed that he had left his vest
hanging within reach, and the poor ami
NAL had eaten it, with all that the pook-
cts contained, and they were stuffed with
various assortment, including box Of
matches and bottle Of medicine.
| Matches, medicine, glass and all had been
crushed between the long ,molars and
swallowed.
The first elephant brought to America
for exhibition purposes was cold Bet,
and it has often been remarked that the
American circus was built on her
shoulders. Different accounts fail to
agree in regard to the date of the impor-
tation, which is placed all the way from
| 1776 to 1888 by different writers of old
time "reminiscences. Old Bet was
brought over in the shipAmerica, of which
| Capt Crowningshield was master and
she landed, according to the harhor
records, in Philadelphia in April, 1893.
She was but five feet high, and the sum
of SO, 900 was paid for her, the largest
price that had been paid up to that time
for any animal, either here or in Europe
She was first exhibited in Philadelphia
and astonished the publ ic daily by draw
| ing the corks from 80 bottles of beer and
drinking the contents. On the Goth of
June, 1899, she passed through New York
on the way to Boston. In the advertise
ments her amiable qualities were highly
extolled, but postscript informed visitors
that they. had better leave valuable docu-
ments at home, as the elephant had taken
many papers from the pockets of the
owners and chewed them up. In this dis
| play of playful ness Old Bet was not I'M
| like Jumbo, who had a habit of astonish
ing ladies who came into the tent on hot
days by reaching out and taking the ir
palm-leaf fans in his trunk and stuffing
| them, with great cracking and smash
| ing into his mouth.
| Old Bet had been bought on the COM
| munity plan by a number OF farmers OF
Putnum County, N Y, at the instance
of one Ludwig Bistadler, each mortgaging
his farm and putting $500 into the ven
/ I, tod hnr ndn xUn
sheds at hotels by putting piece Of side
canvas up in fornt lof the shed. The adj
mission price was 25 cents for adults and
1917 cents, or York shilling, for children
This gigantic geological Institute, as the
caravan was called, travelled east as far
in spite of ITS docile disposition, was shot
and killed. As the institute" contained
no other attractions, the show closed.
The same proprietors then imported a
second elephant. which they also called
Old Bet and they enlarged their exhibit
\ ton by adding to the collection lion
and a two-horse cage, and one monkey i'll
box, strapped on to the hind end of the
| lions cage The second Old Bet landed
| in 1888 Following her to til csc shores
! the next pachyderln to arrive seems to
have been Mogul, a very big fellow with
| long tusks, who was burned on the
steamer Royal Tar.
BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND PORT
LAND, ME.
Elephants arrived in-considerable num-
bers after that, and became plentiful In
| this country The greatest number ever
in any one herd was collected for tn
Barnum- Bailey show. When the rivalry
between that show and Adam Forepaugh
became very hot, the management of each
sent all over the world to buy. elephants.
When Forepaugh bought half dozen,
Barnum bought 10, and the herds grew
so large and SO many elephants were
brought in the country that when the
craze died out the animals fell in price.
This season Manager Bailey who owns now
| both the Barnum and the Forepagh herds,
has gathered tho trained members of
each together and placed them with his
show, making a herd of "a. all trained
| for the ring.
| Elephants, there is every reason to be-
lieye. are, like the American bison, fast
disappearing. In 1886 a worker in ivory
in Sheffield Eng, endeavored in all seri-
| \ I,,, + -,