The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-20
ELEPHANT TRIES AuTo-suRGERY.
Siam Tries to Amputate a Wart With
q HandSaw.
From the New York Journal.

/ children. So ponderOuS1y did they sea mper
hither and thither on the pier and so
| fercely did they trumpet that the seamen
of the Massachusetts turned white and
began to whisper to one another weird
tales of wild animals that had broken
loose from their confinement on board
| ship and droven such of the crew as had
! escaped death TO refuge in the rigging.
And they hazsrded conjectures, did these
imaginative sailor men, about the things
that might happen If the oxen and the
elephants and the big, hungry cat animals
of the Barnum & Bailey show should
break Jail in mid-A tlantic and run riot
from stem to stern of the big steamer.
But the animal keepers had no time for
vain imaginings, for their every faculty
was called into play to dragoon their cum
brous charges aboard ship and eonfne
them there for their voyage of nearly two
weeks. The biggest elephants had been
| detained ashore to help in the hauling and
pushing of heavy trucks and cages all day
Thursday, while the rest of the animals
were being slowed away in their narrow
sea quarters. Under the guidance of
| Trainer Conklin and his lieutenants, Man
DARN, Siam, Don and Pat resumed their
labors at dawn yesterday.
Don became insurgent at length. He is
the largest African elephant in the troupe
and he is as frolicsome as a school girl
With a wagging of his doormat ears and
a fiirt of his absurd tall he backed from
the task allotted to him, and sided toward
the entrance of the pier shed, where Belt
line cars were crawling to and fro. Half
a dozen keepers clustered around him.
! epnl6jDP "a wi
spikes. Thereupon Don lifted his trunk
on high and trumpeted so Shrilly that men
and women in the street beyond ran for
shelter in doorways. Unmindful of the
p!gmies who sought TO over-awe him with
their shouts, he spun round heavily and
made for the door in a lum boring canter.
Bales and packing cases of merchandise
tumbled over before him like nne-pins.
Shut the gates! Shut the gates!"
screamed the keepers, as they scrambled
along after him.
The pier Waterman rushed to his post.
II was but a moment or two that he had
for action, and he made the best use of
II. The heavy gate had just swung slowly
into place. and the Waterman had lodged
into the shelter of his office when Don
pulled himself up there with a jerk that
shook his huge frame, and emitted a blast
of disgust. Pausing for only one glance
of disappointment into the street, he turn
ed again and raced up the length of the
pier, still strewng CHAOS in his path.
In the midst of the shouting and turmoil
there was one who was cool and quick and
knew no fear. He was Conklin the train
er. He happened to be on the deck of the
steamer when Don ran amuck, and when
the great beast came galloping back up
the pier the trainer leaped down, seized a
spike and drove the elephant into a cor
ner
BE quiet, you great overgrown brute"'
he shouted. do YOU think we haven't
enough to do besides waiting on you in
your tantrums, you ugly, ungrateful old
whelp, youi'
Without removing his gaze from the little
| twinkling eye of the elephant the train
er stopped end struck the beasts forefeet
with the spike. Don whimpered with pain
and remoTse, and from that moment he be-
haved like a perfect gentleman.
But there was more trouble when the
time came for the herd TO march aboard
ship and be confined in their pens. Man
DARN had never walked plank before and
he did not care TO try the experiment. Nay,
he grew bod and stubborn over it. Not
until a block and tackle was rugged to his
! hind feet and the gentle persuasion of a
donkey engine on the deck was applied to
! him did he take heart of grace to ascend,
and then he did it so rapidly that a group
of inqUisitive mariners fell over one anoth-
er in their anxiety to clear path for him.
| ne plHefS IOlOWed MIN readily enough,
/ though their trunks swayed from side to
side suspiciously, and all were safely
housed with an absence of trouble that
! caused the keepers to congratulate them
selves.
1t was only for few minutes. however,
! that this Congratulatory spirit lasted.
/ siam, the most artful and original of all
the Barnum & Bailey elephants, picked up
a saw from a carpenters bench and man
aged to smuggle it into his pen with him.
When next observed he was attempting
a delicate feat of auto surgery-nothing
! less than the amputation of wart that
disigured his own tail. With the handle
| of the saw grasped in his trunk she was
completely absorbed in his task ard paid
not the slightest attention to the keepers
when they commanded him TO surrender
! the instrument and not make an idiot of
| himself.
To what extent this ambitious elephant
would have developed surgical skill can
| not be told. for the crude efforts of the
keepers to make him desist caused him to
saw off a small section of his tail
But the greatest trouble during the voy-
age is looked for from Pat, who is young
and giddy. So many and bold were the
breaks he made for liberty during the day
that Conklin made arrangements to have
! him watched night and day throughout
the trip.
OF the show vehicles the giraffe wagon
was the last to be hoisted aboard by the
same Chapman derrick that was used to
hoist the submerged railway cars at
| Peekskill. With their necks protruding
skyward and their gentle eyes wide with
surprise, they looked far and wide over
the river and the shipping during their
| hasty trip in midair.
Food for the vast menagerie had already
been taken on board. The supply included
! 1000 pounds of fresh fish for the seals and
polar bears and other tank animals. The
big show, which will open at Olympia, in
| London, early in December, will cost in
transportation alone something like $780,
! 600. In order to have chance to recover
this enormous sum, it is not surprising
that the show should be scheduled to re-
main in Europe three years.
| The Massachusetts sailed at dusk muf-
fled growls and howls and barks and trum-
petings issuing from her hatchways.
Kansas Underground Crop.
From the Sedgwick (<an) Paragraph.
There is probably plenty of corn in all
the Kansas cornfields this year if the
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