The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-03-18
Experiment With Rat at The Barnnfa
Headquarters.
IN. Y. Sun. J

IN. Y. Sum-
1t has long been question among
SEMITIC men whether the common belief
that elephants are in terror of rats and
mice is worthy of acceptance 1t was
conclusively proved yesterday at Barnum
& Bailey's circus headquarters in Bridge
port that it is. Under the membership Of
Tody Hamilton a party of scientific and
newspaper men from this city and New
Haven visited the headquarters and saw
for themselves the terrorizing effect upon
forty five elephants of the presence of
single rat. Tody Hamilton had several
this city for the experiment.. but all sue.
oumbed to the rigors of the weather and
the exposure Of travelling. One rat was
enough, as the experiment. proved, aud
that one was a Bridgeport rat caught
yesterday morning.
The visitors left this city on special
car at 8 O'Clock, and at Bridgeport were
joined by Profs. o. G. Marsh and D. @.
Eaton of Yale and Mayor Clark. DR..
Downs, DR.. Porter, and l.. M. Rich Of
Bridgeport, In the New York party were
Prof. II. G. Osborne of Columbia Coll
lege and DR.. Workman of the Museum Of
Natural History. The chief interest
centored in the elephant and rat expert
ment. Thirty-hye elephants, of whom
half a dozen were little fellows, were
gathered in Charge enclosure, and double
chained by order of Mr.. j. A. Bailey,
who personally conducted the visitors
after they reached the headquarters. In
spite of his reputation as tractable and
reliable animal, the elephant is more
feared by circus men than any other
member of the menagerie. He is liable
to sudden fits of rage or panic, and on
these occasions is about as manageable as
a runaway locomotive and has equal
powers of destruction. The visitors did
not know this, but jeff Callan and
number of other experienced circus men
there understood it we'll, and stood lined
up near the door ready to control hasty
exit of all tine visitors in CASE any of the
giants broke away. The rat, on account
Of which all these precautions were taken
was particularly insignificant specimen,
string tied to it's tail. Ore of the circus
men tossed it out among the elephants
and the performance began.
First to catch sight, or perhaps it was
scent, of it, was one of the small ele-
plants. He threw his trunk in the air,
trumpe ting shriil and loud. This was
the alarm. Instantly swaying motion
went through the elephant ranks. Some
screamed, Others plunged, and others
doubled their feet down under them,
probably to keep the rat out of the crew
ices in them. Hindu mahouts say that
the elephant fear of the rat is a dread that
the rodent will crawl into his feet
Plainly the fear was there. 1t WAS not
confined to the elephant either. The rat
! WAS just as scared as they. Its shrin
squeaks as it lodged about among the
ponderous feet made the big fellows still
| more frightened.
Finally all the elephants began plung-
ing, and at that Prof. Marsh performed
feat that would doubtless have edited his
| Glasses had they been there to see. A pile
| of big bales OF hay stood near him. An
agile leap carried him to foothold upon
| the first tier and he squirmed up the rest
| of the way with the grace and ease of
ehipmunk ascending tree. A number
| of newspaper men went after him. Prof
| Marsh perched himself near the edge and
looked down at the elephants.
"Self presentations is the first law of
nature, " he remarked. II can observe
| in more scientific frame of mind from
| here"
Presently the rat, having found cor
ner, stayed quiet until it was hauled
| back by the string. The attendant tossed
it on the back of Bad Hattie, a particu-
larly bad tempered elephant. Hattie did
| everything but turn somersaultS in her
effort to disiodge her rider, but the rat
chung, while she bucked, tapped her
skin, shook. plunged, and rubbed against
the wall, shrieking with fear all the
time Finally one of the other elephants
came to her rescue and swept the rodent
off with his trunk. Then there were
more lively times, but finally big fell
low backed down upon the enemy and
put foot upon it, destroying it.
A guinea pig was then tried upon Hat
| Il slx,y% hot uf a
this she differed from most OF the others
who made great row until the little
white fellow was crushed by foot 1t
was not judged safe to try any 1urtner
experiments owing to the excited condl-
tion of the animals
| Other matters of interest were seens
There was beautiful exhibition OF fifty
one trained horses under Prof OBrien,
! in which the animals, apparelled IN gay
Trainings went through evOlutlons on
sort of comic platform with kaleidoscope
effect. Joanna, the chlmpanzee who has
recovered from the cold she caught in
moving from Central Park, was also Wis
| tied. and the guests saw the lions and
tigers fed There was only one mishap,
| and that was to Mr.. l.. M. Rich's brown
hat. Mr.. Rich was standing by the
| black bears cage observing those animals
with unnecessary contempt,
"That big chap" he remarked.
| doesn't look as if he knew he was alive"
Then Mr.. Rich turned aside, and the
maligned bear reaching out through the
bars swung heavy right paw upon Mr..
Rich's brown hat. crumpling it up like
a piece of paper. Mr.. Rich was not
harmed, but was highly surprised. He
nickpamed the bear Fitzsimmons
After the inspection the visitors went to
dinner as guests of Tody Hamilton, and
there were speeches and toasts. About
fifty persons took the trip.