The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-10-08
ELEPHANT FICTIONS.
Impossible Stories Told About
the Animals Memory.
His sAgaeity 10 Greatly Exaggerated, says
Prof. Lockhart-He II, However,
Good-Natured Beast If Prop
erly Treated.


Prof. Lockhart-He Il, However,
Good-Natured Beast If Prop
erly Treated.
Errors and Oriental.
classic, medieval and modern supersti-
tion-cluster about my lord the ele-
phant," as he is called in India. There
is hardly an animal about which SO
many fictions exist or which is so little
understood.
The popular opinion is that the ele-
phant's memory is as retentive as
mans. Stories are constantly floating
about to this effect. The last one met
with asserted that an elephant had
killed man who, 20 years before, when
a small boy, had given him a piece OF to-
bacco, or had in some way maltreated
him. OF course this story is preposter-
GUS. In the first place most elephants
love tobacco, and instead of killing a
man for giving him chew. he would be
most likely to trumpet welcome and
caress him every time he presented him.
self. But as to his remembering any
body for 20 years or 20 months even, it
is sheer nonsense There is hardly an
animal whose memory is SO capricious.
An equally unaccountable fiction Is
that there recurs period each year
when gland swells on each side of the
animals head about six inches back OF
the eyes, and which emits a watery dis
charge of unpleasant odor. At such
times the elephant is supposed to be
very dangerous creature. AS l never
knew an elephant to be especially disa-
greeable when he had cold in his head,
1 am inclined to class this with the
other ridiculous and absurd yarns Sc
often repeated.
It is commonly supposed that the
elephant is unable to give definite ex-
preston to his feelings. This Is a mis-
take. He always expresses his pleasure
in one way, by blowing through his
trunk. The noise made is exceedingly
shrill. When in want, he expresses il
in a low note made by the mouth, and
when in anger or when in a revengefu!
mood, he makes a terrific roar with his
throat, which sounds like distant thun-
der. He never mixes these sounds;
they always stand for definite states o1
feeling, and are as well understood by
| the trainer as are the deep, slow-drawr
and far resounding snores heard a
midnight in the elephants stable.
| The elephants wisdom has so otter
been extolled that ''sagacious as an ele
phant" has passed into an axiom. II
! point of fact an animal will cross rot
/ ten bridge full of holes ifyou willpermi
him to do so. Even in his wild state
though possessed of a proboscis whicl
is capable of guarding it against sucl
! dangers, the elephant readily falls int
! pits dug to receive it, which are onl.
covered with a few sticks and leaves
It's fellows make no effort in genera
! to assist the fallen, as they might easil.
do by kicking in the earth around tn
edge. but fly in terror. 1t commonl.
| happens that a young elephant tumble
/ into pit, near which it's mother viii
remain until the hunters come, withou
doing anything to help it not evel
feeding it by throwing in few branch
es. Whole herds of elephants are le'
into Enclosures which they could breal
through as easily as if they were mad
of cornstalks, and which no other ami
NAL would enter: and single ones ar
caught by their hind legs being tied to
rether by men under cover Of tame ele
| plants. Animals that happen to escap
are captured again without trouble
even experience will not bring then
wisdom. / do not think that traduc
the elephant when say that it is, II
many things, a stupid animal.
Regarding an elephant being unabl
to express with his countenance feel
ings of affection, fear, desire, ] thin
| all those who have seen Boney simulat
| drunkenness at Proctor's pleasure pa
| ace, in the pantomime, From Cafe t
Police Station" viii readily acknowl
/ edge this error. tt is really wonderfu
| how much facial expression an ele
| phant really has-with face skeleto
SO imperfect; that is to say its nasa
bones are rudimentary, while th
mouth. allof the lower half of the face
/ is concealed beneath great muscles al
! tached to the base of the trunk. Butt
/ spite of that, and with his ears ur
cooked and his proboscis pendant, a
elephants countenance Is full OF chal
acter.
The truth about the elephant is tha
treated kindly and considerably, he
a great, good-natured beast, who, 10
his master, will perform any posslbel
labor orzfeat. They are very affection
ate and exceedingly jealous OF after
tions from their master. Ihere al
.srogue' elephants, of course, but the
are seldom met with except in larg
herds, and where attendants do not VI
derstand how to treat the brutes
their charge.-N. Y. Journal.