The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-03-06
ELEPHANT LABOR.
Utilizing tho Huge Brutes For
Heavy Work in India.
Making Themselves Useful fin q
Lumber Yard.

'..'''H't A#+'aA NAN.N Ath'A AAA ~ HNAANNN ]
Of occupations, from tho temple Gle
plants engaged in their solemn and |
sleepy professions to the huge and /
well-groomed animals belonging TO |
che artillery batteries at Quota and |
Peshawur on the Afghan frontier, and |
we had listened to not a few tales Of |
what they could do, sometimes with |
just shade Of incredulity says a
writer in Harpors Weekly
There are about dozen elephants
employed in the work Of the yard,
and all Of these but one are males.
This may, aud probably does, arise
from the fact that the males are
usually larger and stronger than the
female elephants, but, Judging from
the specimen we saw, it cannot be
from any superiority Of Intelligence
on the part OF the male animal. The
solitary female worker, indeed, is a
veritable maid-of-all-work about the
yard, and no kind of work appears to
come amiss to her. At one time she
may be seen holding a log up to the
saw when at work, either endwiso or
across, rs occasion may require; at
another she is dragging the slabs away
with the end of her trunk, and piling
them in heaps with all the regularity
and skill of the most neat-handed
workman; at a third she is making a
stack Of the sawn boards, or sweeping
the sawdust from the mill-house floor
with a gigantic broom. The meaning
of the whistle to knock off work is
not better known to any workman on
the place than to her, and it is no
easy matter to induce her to do
single trunks turn when the signal
has once sounded.
The log, once piloted to shore, will
at the word of command, if not Of
greater weight than about a ton and a
half, be priced up by the animals
tusk, and then grasped with the trunk
carefully and exactly in the middle,
and carried to the spot where it is
wanted. Arrived at the heap of logs
In the y9rd, he will place one end on
the ground, and the other on the heap,
and then proceed with the most sys-
tematic care to push it up and adjust
it with the point of his tusks.
You cannot overload an elephant,
however, for the animal will at once
refuse any load which he consid-
.ers beyond his strength, and there is
practically no appeal from the ele-
plants opinion on such question.
In case of a log being brought ashore
which seems to be too large and
heavy for single elephant, second
is called to his assistance, and the two
animals proceed quietly to pick it up
by the extreme ends, and carry it to
the required heap, where they deposit
it with the utmost care, even examin-
ing it critically to see that it is per-
fectly in line with the rest of the
stack. For this, and all other nice
processes'of adjustment, the point O.
the trunk'i the instrument used.
1t has been said that an elephan
can do everything but speak, and, in
deed, we were often disposed to doub
whether there was even this exception
Whatever emotion one of these AMI
mails feels he seems ready to expires
ia sound, and SO various are the modu
1ations Of his voice, and so ready theil
sympathy sld apparentcomprehensioi
OF one another, that we could hardly
doubt that the impression that Gle
phants cannot speak, was due rathe
TO our ignorance than to their want 0
the power of making themselves under
stood. The elephant is very liable t.
launstroke, especially when working i
the water, and even on shore he
generally furnished with cover for hi
head during the hours of the creates
heat. A good elephant is of sue
value that his health is not to b
irisked lightly, and, indeed, after W
had seen what they could do, we wei
inclined to go further, and say that
well-trained elephant is absolutely il
valuable for heavy labor in climai
such as that in which he finds h
natural home.