The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1898-03-30
The olRAEEE,s SORE THROAT.
II Was Most Eighteen Feet Long and Very
Hard to Treat.


Hard to Treat.
''Seems to me told you once, said
the old circus man, ''about the giraffe
having sore throat? 1t is serious
matter for any giraffe to have sore
throat; bad for the giraffe and bad for
the owner. When you come to take
an eighteen foot giraffe like ours sore
throat meant large expense aud large
amount of trouble; and the big fellow
hadn't more'n got over this before
something else happened to him that
gave us even more trouble. He caught
cold and the cold settled in his throat
I suppose he was still sensitive
there and it gave him stiff neck,
so that he couldn't bend his neck at
all
''You can't have any idea of what n
stiff neck means until you see giraffe
afflicted in that way; we'd had all sorts
of trouble with animals in one way or
another, but for real bother this beat
'em all We discovered it one day on
the road. The giraffe always ducked
his head under the branches that hung
down, sort of like swan or goose
does, but this day, carrying his head
right up straight in the air, he brought
up against branch that was at least
fifteen feet above the ground. That was
such an amazing thing that we knew
something must be the matter, and
when the girafie's keeper came up and
spoke to him, and all he did was to
bend his nose down and look down,
xvtr 1,sN Ia
neck, and then we knew what was the
matter.
''Well, of course, the first thing we
did was to set man to march along.
side of him with tent pole with
crotch in the end of it to lift the
branches for him. Most of the time
almost all of the time, in fact-we
could steer him clear of overhangiug
branches, and of course lots of the
way there was long stretches where
there wasn't any trees at all; and then
we'd come to places where the man
would have to lift branch to let the
big giraffe go under; and a great pity
it was too, to see him compelled to go
about in that manner
'He went that way for about ten
days. Ordinarily we used to put his
feed for him on top of an animal cage,
80 that he wouldn't have to bend
down more than eight or ten feet, but
he couldn't do that now. So we set
ring in the centre pole eighteen feet
from tho ground, and we used to reeve
II ope through that and make one end
It to the bucket with his food o.
rk in it, and hoist it up and lie
eat there. On the road we used
hrow the rope over the crotch OF
at n suitable height. For his
~ into the great tent at show time
had to cut great slit in the can
a.; bat we didn't regret that, because
; was mighty impressive thing 10
~ him march in that way. 1t made
"'m look thirty-six feet tall instead of
eighteen.
''Twice a day man used to go up
on ladder and put a strap around
his head, and we'd hook on fall with
n bo'sun's chair, and man would ride
down his neck and rub in liniment.
He used to like that very much, and
it helped him greatly, too, and one
morning when the men went out to
give him the usual rub they were de-
lighted to see the old chap with his
head down pretty near to the roof OF
the grizzly bear cage, which stood
nest to him, which showed that his
neck was coming around all right, and
also indicated that he d take his break
fast this morning in the old way, if
you please. Boston Herald.