, 1897-03-24
NOT EASILY KILLED.
How to Gel Rid OF Elephants No Long
er Useful Has Been a Problem.

49, ape '" Ah' Dai vi IIl- |
Gus. He was the big elephant who us
ed 10 stand next 10 Jumbo, and who
was employed to push freight cars, cir
Gus wagons and do any kind OF work
requiring the exercise of enormous
strength. They killed poor old Tip the
other day by s%trangling him. ~. prior
efforts to do il by means of poison-at-
tempts which the sagacious old beast
was too willy to permit to succeed-are
interesting as described by the New
York Press:
Prof. William Wallace. OF the Ameri-
can Museum Of Natural History. added
to his record yesterday n bungling exc
%cutioner. He fed eight ounces OF cyan
ide OF potassium 10 an elephant. and the
creature in the course of four hours
thrived so on the poison that he was
changed from a deCrepit and half-dead
monster into n playful and jocular
~yOungster. that tossed back to his keep
ers. with all the abandon of African bar
barity. apples loaded with deadly DOW
der.
Prof. Wallace used up several days a
year or SO ago trying 10 execute Tip.
the famous Central park elephant. He
tried his hand ugain yesterday on Bar
mum q Buil"y's Tip, another huge
paChydorm, and late last night the ele-
plant was enjoying life more thorough
ly than he had for years.
The execution of Tip by poison was
arraigned by "Toddy" Hamilton as the
star attraction of the annual visit 10 the
winter quarters of the Barnum 4 Bailey
show al Bridgeport. About thirty news
paper men went 10 Bridgeport yester-
day in n special car at Mr.. Bailey's in
vitation. At Bridgeport they were join
ed by the Connecticut wspap men.
and nnder the guidance OF Mr.. Bailey
and Mr.. McAdam visited the whole
show in winter quarters.
The place of execution was he ele-
plant house, which stands in the mid
die of the spacious grounds that COM
prise the winter quarters Of the Great
est Show on Earth" Part OF the herd
was taken out Of the building, so that
Tip had one side of it all to himself. Ii
was deemed inadvisable to remove all
of the elephants for fear that Tip would
become lonely and suspicious. He is a
foxy old fellow. as he showed later in
The day.
Prof. Wallace was assisted by a corps
from New York and a score of men con-
necled with the circus, chief Of whom
Central park m%enagerie.
The eXecutionor was confident of
killing the animal in FIVE minutes. He
had tested the poison on Sunday on a
cat. A speck of it on the point of the
small blade OF a penknife killed the
creature almost instantly. He didn't ex-
pect, ne said, to see the elephant sue
cumb so quickly as the cat did, but he
was satisfied hat the poison was all
right. The capsules were coated with
paratine, inclosed in a thick coating of
beeswax, to disguise the taste.
Ignorant observers who waited four
hours yesterday for the poison to act
were of he opinion that The heat in the
elephants stomach was not enough 10
warm and so melt the beeswax.
The smallest capsule contained poison
enough to kill the 100 or more persons
present. A dozen capsules were mixed
with a pailful of bran mash. The ele-
plant had been on short rations for 36
hours. and naturally was furnishing
when the bran mash wa set before him.
He gulped down half the contents of the
pail before he seemed to smell a mouse.
Then he tried to eject out what he had
swallowed, and succeeded to some ex-
tent. Prof. Wallace said, however, that
he had swallowed enough to kill him.
Copious %draughts Of water-the worst
thing in the world for him-were given
to him. He drank the. water all right.
Then everybody waited an hour for him
to keel over.
AS he didn't keel, Prof. Wallace then
fed him with a half peck of nice red ap-
pies. Tip likes apples, but he grew sus-
picious at once. Each contained nearly
a half ounce OF poison. He ate five of
them-so everybody thought for a few
minutes until he elected the whole lot
after chewing them meditatively-
Then Conklin made him throw his
head and trnnk in rho mir chm b;s ava.