The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-03-17
midas ELEPHANT ARTILLERY

The officers and men OF the indian arm.
have for years been working upon the idel
| of making the;elephant more and more use
full. At first the big beast was used OF
the Notifications, for hauling timber, an,
all kinds of task for which great strength
absolute obedience and dociity were re
CURED The. elephant is not particular,
Intelligent peast, and therefore his prog
ress has beeiislow along the lines laid down
by the disciples bf Mars. Now he knows a,
well what to do as the best posted artillery
man, and win bring his gun to the regi
mental front with precision.
Glance at the accompanying illustration.
Theelephantisshown at restandon parade,
and to all appear ances realizes as well as
the mahout, who perches upon the giant
| head. that he Is on view and must look his
best, and stand as straight as the ranks
| in front OF him. Everybody who knows
anything about elephants is aware OF the
fact that when excited, he is in the nature
of terror Oddly enough, however, the
trained elephant rarely gets into that state
| or mind. With the knowledge he gains
seem to come the power to control himself
and do his duty as best as he can.
The particular use to which the elephant
is put in the artillery line In India is as
u beast OF draught for the heavy batteries
and for the guns of the siege train. These
instruments OF war are tremendous in size
and exceedingly heavy. Until the
regime Of the elephant, 1T had been the
custom to have them drawn by long lines
OF bullocks. There was, however, no end
of trouble with these beasts. They were
hard to control, and so many of them were
required that they proved good deal of
nuisance. So it is that the British artillery
man rejoices at the substitu ton of the Gle
plant for the bullock. One elephant VIII
draw without effort piece OF artillery
which a long line of bullocks would have
difficulty in moving at all.
Every one of these heavy batteries which
the elephant moves from place to place
consists OF four 40-pounders and two
and 3-inch howitZeTs. While one elephant
can draw, If necessary, a single piece of
artillery, in order not to strain him at all
they aresometimes paired or driven tandem.
For instance in such battery s the one
just described twelve elephants are util-
lied. These are not all employed in draw.
ing the artillery at the same time for IL
is well not TO work an elephant too hard,
because II that Is done he is apt to become
stubborn, despite his usual tractability.
The elephant battery, or rather the
guns OF IL, is always accompanied by
ammunition wagons and baggage. Owing
to the fact that the supply of properly
trained elephants is limited, bullocks are
still utilized as the beasts Of draught for
the battery Accomplishments. The fact
that 282 bullocks are required to draw
the ammunition and baggage, forms a
striking contrast between their powers and
those of the elephants, for the gross weight
OF the ammunition and the baggage is in
finitely less than that OF the artillery itself
The British artillerymen do not attempt
to manage the big beasts that draw the
guns To accomplish this task, there is
employed a staff Of twelve mahouts, with
twelve assistants, the latter being under
the command Of an official known as jenna
dar, or captain. All are natives Of India.
Then, besides the elephant company, as IL
is called, there are with each battery
jemadar, six siIdars and 131 drivers, who
care for the buDocks. Therefore, IL can
be seen that a battery of artillery in India
amounts to something. In fact, it is a
little army in itself, for every one OF the
natives employed, is supposed 10 be com
peteHt and Ieady7to fight, If necessary.
Whenever it happens that the battery |
is TO be transported "a great distance the |
is used as an aid, IL il can pos |
sibly be made available. In such cases, it |
is necessary, of course, TO transport the |
elephants by rail. and special cars have |
been made for the purpose, These cars |
are in appearance like the ordinary coal |
car oman American railroad, the sides being |
about one-haIf the height OF a box car. At |
one end of the car is a small house with |
one eud omitted. In this little house sits /
the nlahout or attendant OF the elephant, |
who sees that during the journey he does /
not become frightened and has no oppor-
tuDity of injuring himself Over the rest |
OF the car is framework. There are
three steel posts at each side. Running |
lengthwise and attached TO these are two
sections of steel Of about the size of the
ordinary pine board.