The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-09

Tho Big Giraffe Catches n Colo, which Settles
In Its Neck.

In ln Mock.
Seems to me I told you once" said the old
circus man. "about the giraffe having q sore
throat 1t is n serious matter for any giraffe to
have q sore throat, bad for the giraffe and bad
for the owner. When you como to take an
eighteen-foot giraffe like ours. a sore throat
meant large expense and a 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 1t gave him a stinI
neck. SO that he couldn't bend his neck at all.
You can't have any idea what a stiff neck
means until you see a giraffe afflicted in that
way: we'd had all sorts of trouble with animals
in one way and another, but for real bother this
beat 'em all. We discovered 1t one day on the
road. The giraffe always ducked his head under
the branch es that hung down, sort of like Q
head right up straight in the air ne brought np
against a branch that was at least fifteen feeb
a ,htTs tn, the ground gro y rnsw That T Sins such an an amazing am
ter. and when the %giraffe's keeper come up and
down, and look down. why. we saw he couldn'o
bend his neck. and then we knew what was the
A"Weil. of course. the arst thing we did was to
set a man 10 march alongside OF Him with a ten6
pole with a crutch in the end Of it TO lift the
the time, in fact. we could steer him clear OF
overhanging branches. and OF course lots of the
way lutIc "do ioHk SliFttuob "HcTo IuoTo
wasn't any trees at all; and then we'd como to
places where the man would have to lift Q
a branch TO let the big giraffe go under; and .
great pity il was. too. TO see him compelled TO
go about in that manner.
He went that way for about ten days. ordi:
narily we used 10 put his feed for, him on top OF
an animal cage, so that, he wouldn't have to
bend down more than eight or ten feet. but he
couldn't do that now. So we set a ring In the
centre pole eighteen feet from the ground. and
we used to reeve a rope through that and make
one end fast TO the bucket with his food or drink
in IL. and hoist IL up and let him eat there. On
the road we used to throw that rope over the
crotch OF a tree at a suitable height. For his
entry into the great tent at show time we had to
cut a great slit in the canvass; but we didn't re-
grct that, because IL was a mighty impressive
Thing 10 see him march in In that way. IT. made
him look thirty-six feet tall instead OF eighteen
Twice a day a man used 10 go up on a ladder
and put u strap around his head. and we'd hook
on a fall with IA bosun's chair, and a man would
ride down his neck and rub in l%iniment. He
used TO like that very much. and II helped him
greatly. too; an: ono morning, when the men
went out 10 give him the usual rub they wero
delighted to sec the old chap with his head down
pretty near to the roof OF the grizzly bear cage.
which stood next TO him, which showed that his
neck was coming around all right. and also In
Dictated that he'd take his breakfast this morn
ing in the old way. II YOU please