The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-28
ELEPHANTS AT SCHOOL.
Taught 10 Ride Bicycles and other
Tricks.

tFltANs
From the New Orleans Times Democrat
The eleverness Of the elephant and the
remarkable tricks which the big annual
performs at the bidding of trainer are
well known and have called forth many
ordinations of wonder But 80 see a
line of elephants march out upon the stage
of a variety theater, and calmly proceed
to pound drums. balance themselves on
one leg, and ride bicycles, gives one no
idea at all OF the extraordinary amount
of patient training that has been neces-
sary to bring them to do these things.
Just how it is done has puzzled many;
and. indeed. almost anyone would be
greatly interested by a visit to an elephant
school At one of these establishments
recently opened the elephantIne pupils
now number four. but as the schoolmas-
ter is endeavoring to enlarge the school,
there will probably be some additions
soon. The school session are held morn>
ing and afternoon, with an intermssion
for lunch. and no schoolboy ever felt the
chains of discipline more oppressively than
do these little pachyderms. They are all
babies, and their names respectively are
Pinto, Mary, Jennie and Fannie The
smallest weighs about 400 pounds, which
is an unusually light weight for an ele-
phant: the full-groWn animals weigh as
much as 10000 pounds.
The schooimaster As Albert Stalder, an
animal trainer of ten years experience.
He was lately found conducting a session
of the school with a whip in one hand, and
a half pound of loaf sugar in the other. In
front of the schoolmaster sat PINTO ana
this young lady was actually sitting, the
seat being an inverted tub. Her fore 4eet
and trunk were beating the air IN mute
appeal to her teacher, who was patiently
and laboriously endeavoring to induce the
unruly trunk to curl its prehenslle ter
minus around the handle OF bell. Ten
times the waving trunk swept the bell Oh
to the floor, and each time the whip cut
the poor little beasts flank. The eleventh
time the trunk carried the bell into the
air and the clapper rang.
A few Jumps of sugar We're thrust INTO
the mouth of the elephant, and the saga
cious animal, quickly perceving that be-
tween the bell and the sugar there was
some subtle connection, was induced 70
ring the implement second and thlrd
time Pinto was kept at her one lesson un-
til it was time for the next class TO De
called up.
When Pinto retired, Jennie shuffied to
the front. This elephant was the smallest
of the quartette. In fact the little animal
was scarcely bigger than a large-slzed dog.
The trainer laid aside his whip, remarking
that this baby was too young TO castlgate
Sugar is the only means of persuasion used
in Jennies training al present, Her lesson
began with remarkable series of gym
nastic feats. Jennie stood on her head
balanced herself on one leg, and ate Jumps
of sugar from the trainers hands while
standing rampant on her hind legs
Then the baby was put through the most
difficult of all her tasks. 1t was the Lam
guage lesson at the elephant school. The
lesson was given to teach Jennie TO talk.
Questions were asked by the schoolmaster,
to which the appropriate answer would be
yes or mo. An elephant, OF course, can
not be expected to use acticuate speech,
so the trainer explained that the baby
would reply by lifting and lowering its
fore feet. The patience of the trainer with
this diminutiye specimen Of elephant Ire
was remarkable Crouching down, the
schoolmaster lifted the foot and lowered
1t the requisite number of times after each
question, stroking the babys trunk and adj
ministering copious doses of sugar The IN
FAINT proved a tractable pupil, and before
the lesson was over she had made an at
tempt 10 answer questions without the aid
OF the teachers hands. 1t viii require
many weary hours Of instruction before
the little animal understands and responds
to the teachers voice. Bat Jennie is young
yet, only sixteen months old In fact--the
swaddlihg clothes stage of an elephants
existence-and she has, in all probability,
plenty Of time before in which to grow
wise and learned.
The remainder of the school. consisting
of Mary and Fannie, was taken in one
class. The whip came into use again with
this class. for the trainer explained that
Mary, who is a trife Older, and conse-
quently less of baby than Jennie has a
reputation for being ugly at times. The
class was called for the study of the bicy-
like small wagons, and the little animals
had to be urged with both whip and sugar
before they could be induced to trust them
selves to this style of locomotion. First
the two animals were pushed along by the
schoolmaster and his assistant. AS they
felt the machine move the sagacious ba-
bies grabbed the sides to steady them
selves, necessarily touching the pedals
that moved the wheels, caused them to re-
volve. In this way, explained the teach
er, the elephants would gradually get TO
know what was expected of them and so
the bicycle riding would progress from
the schoolgirl to the exhibition stage OF
a performing elephants life.
The lesson lasted for an hour, and was
accompanied by prodigious outlay of
sugar. The little elephants seemed to
have a most capacious nav for the stor-
age of sweets. This, explained the in
structor, Is a new adjunct to training.
The old way was to prod the animals with
cruel spikes, and bully and brow beat
them into submission. The present system
works much better the elephants doing
for sugar what no amount of punishment
would induce them to do.