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

ABILITIES AND VICES OF ELE-
PLANTS.

ABILITIES AND VICES OF ELE-
PLANTS.
Some of the First Ones Which Wer
Brought to America.
MOgul Burned on the Royal Tar Between
St. John and Portland-The Great Beasts
Love Whiskey.
Elephants love whiskey. That is the
testimony of elephant men generally,
though all are familiar with the good old
temperance argument that no animal will
touch alcohol except degenerate man
alone. George Conklin, who has charge
of the herd of "a elephants with the Bar
mum & Bailey show, and who ought to
know the animal pretty we'll, since he has
handled large numbers of them for the
past 25 years, says that he never found
one that did not like his tipple Good
old Jumbo, beloved of children in two
hemishperes because of his lovely disI os-
tin and gentle ways, never went to bed
in his private elephant car without tax
ing his nightcap. The English keeper
who travelled with Jumbo from the time
he was brought to this country until he
met his untimely death at ST. Thomas,
Ont, got a quart bottle of good Bourbon
county rye every night, and took one
three fingered drink himself; Jumbo
drank the rest, and very moderate
drink he seemed to find it. Up to the
day of his death he never neglected to ask
for more, and to smash the bottle when
he failed to get it. That was his one
little exhibition of bad temper.
Jumbo had another bad habit that an
exemplary elephant whose associates were
mainly children ought not to have, and
that was an inordinate love for tobacco.
A quarter pound package of cut smoking
tobacco always came into the rear car
with the whiskey, and the keeper got one
pipeful of it. The rest was cbewed up
and swallowed by the monster elephant.
Having taken his whiskey and his to-
bacco, he would retire and sleep peace
fully till morning unless it happened to
plants never go to sleep without leaving
one of the herd awake to keep watch and
give warning in case of intrusion. Go
into the big menagerie tent of the show
any night after the elephants have gone
to sleep, or go into one of the elephant
cars on night run, and you will find
that, no matter how quietly and stealthily
you have entered the eye of one member
of the herd is upon you and that you can
not make a movement without being fol-
lowed by that twinkling, bright little
optic. It is probably jungle instinct
which centuries of captivity have not
overcome.
Fritz, one of the biggest elephants of
the herd, had chill the other day, and he
was given whiskey to cure it. That is
the elephant keepers favorite remedy.
Chills and collie are the chief ills that
trouble his charges, and whiskey will
cure both chills and collie. Fritz got his
drink all right, and seemed to be cured.
but it was not long before George Conk-
lin passed him again and saw that he
was shaking with terrible chill. Conk-
lin passed along and stepped out of sight
of Fritz, when the big fellow quit his
trembling and went to throwing dust
over himself to drive off the flies. When
Conklin came back in sight, Fritz began
to have chill again. The keeper watch
ed the huge animal few minutes, and
then said
sfNo more whiskey, Fritz. :"
Fritz Strengthened up, with a reproving
look on his face, and went to munching
hay, as much as to say, ''No more
whiskey, no more chills.
Conklin believes, as do most all ele-
plant keepers, that the animal can I'M
derstand what is said to it Indeed,
trainers assert that it has more intelli-
gunce than any other animal and that it
is the only one that can be taught to mind
by word of mouth without other cues
That it is endowed to limited extent
with
REASONING POWERS,
is certain, and one German philosopher
thinks he has discovered that this mental
development is due to the fact that in the
trunk the elephant possesses prehensile
organ similar to the hand of man. The
hand, he asserts, has played more i'm
portant part in the development of the
human intellect than any other agency,
since it brings its possessor into more
intimate relations with the external
world than any other organ. Some
menagerie man, with I"ore practical OBJ
seryation than the German professor,
and smaller bump of theorizing, has
pointed out that the only flaw in this
reasoning is that if it is correct the gorillas
and ohimpanzees ought to have higher
mental development than man, because
they have four good hands instead of two.
and any one of the four is stronger than
the eight hands of four men.
Observation-Disclosures tories of the sagac-
ity of elephants are so numerous that it
is never necessary to resort to exaggera-
ton to say something interesting about
them. In their wild state the leader Of
the herd has been seen when approaching
swampy ground to extend one foot to try
-: III S<.v>A l.