The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-03-16

Further About How They Managed
Wher. the Giraffe Had n Cold.

Further About How They Managed
Wher. the Giraffe Had n Cold.
Il was telling you the other day" said
the old circus man, about how our eight
een-foot giraffe caught cold that settled
in his neck and gave him a stiff neck, and
how had to hist his feed up for him to
ring fixed in the center pole; and how we
used to put a strap around his head and
hook on a fall and have man ride down
his neck in bo'sun's chair and rub in
liniment; but l did not tell you about how
managed to give him the medicine he
had to have at that time Feeding him
and rubbing down his neck We did when
we We're in camp. where we had some sort
of conveniences for the work; tent UP and
center pole in place and ladders where We
could get at 'em handy; and of course it
was simple enough to give him his medi-
cine there; but on the road it different
There we had to manage the best way we
could.
I'VE always used to give him his medi-
cine in muskmelOns, of which he was very
fond. We would cut q muskemelon in two
and put in the medicine and then stick it
together again and give him the melon
whole. there was trouble getting him to
take medicine in this way, because he
would eat muskemeons all day long if
you'd give EN- to him.; the only trouble.
now that he couldn't bend his neck was
about how to get 'em up to him. In camp
up a melon on the center pole in a bucket.
And after we'd struck the tents and be-
fore we'd got everything loaded on the
wagons when his medicine time come.
which was every half hour. we just run up
ladder against him and a man went up
and give him a melon. And 1T was easy
enough on the road, when we first started,
because there trees along and all We
had to do was just throw a rope over the
limb of tree at the right height and haul
him up melon in bucket. But after
while we came to a long treeless stetch,
where something else had to be done. We
didn't any of us realize it until the minute
arrived, and then it struck us all of a sud-
den that there wasn't any way Of getting
it up to him; and then, usual. we called
on the old man. and. as usual he settled 1t
in about a minute. just as he did every
thing. 1 never knew him to fail in any
emergency. The old says:
"'Get Treeby.'
And then he rode off just as if that
settled it; and it did: and we all won
dered we hadn't thought Of it ourselves.
Treeby was our great silt walker. Tree
Ellington; we always called him Treeby. I
suppose Treeblington was the greatest silt
walker that ever stood on stills. He was
a down East man, young Teller, mOren
six feet high himself, and he walked with
perfect ease stills eleven feet high: so
that when he was up he stood something
more than seventeen feet above the ground.
Well we got Treby up alongside the gi-
raffe and Il man tossed him up one of the
melons, and he handed it up to the giraffe
whose mouth he could easily reach. Then
Treeby was going right back but we ex-
planned to him that he'd have to stay there
and he did. But he didn't like it bit
Somehow it made him feel foolish to walk
alongside the big giraffe on stills and every
salt houI hand him a muskmellon, and he
kicked like 4 steer: he said he didn't Join
the show to tend sick giraffes, but to walk
on stills: and he'd be logged if he'd stand
1t But we got him to worry through that
day and at night we cOllared the old man
again and told him that Treeby was sure
to walk off in the morning IL we called him
up to the giraffe again, and. as usual the
old man suggested an easy way out Of
that He said put a head stall on the gil
raffe and put ring on the throat latch
and reeve rope through that and hist his
medicine I'D to him that way.
And next day that's what we did. Of
course we kept the rope in the ring like
you keep the halliards rove through the
truck on library pole; and We used to
make the ends fast around the upper part
of his high foreleg, when we could reach
EN- When his medicine time came if we
was in the open country we'd just cast
off the haliards and make a bucket fast
| to one end and hist him up his melon
Though his neck was stiff as a tree he
could bend his head all right and he could
get the melon out Of the bucket without
any difficulty: and didn't have to do
| this very long. anyway, because, as 1 told
you, it wasn't mOre'n week before he was
| all light again. New York Sun.