Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-23
ARE MUCH LIKE CHILDREN
Some Elephants Arc Far Harder to Teach
Than Others
Giving Them the Rudiments Of an
EducatiOn-HOw the Trainer
Goes About 1t.
From the New York Evening Post.

Scores of people ask me every day" said
Keeper Snyder Of the elephant house in
Central Park, recently, "how anything so
stupid-lot king and thick-skinned as an ele-
plant can be taught anything. l tell them
all that elephants are not unlike children.
Some are too dull to learn anything, and
others catch all idea quickly. Tom he
went on. pointing to the large elephant who
was brsily engaged in throwing hay on his
back. although irascible in disposition, is
quite intelligent. The first trick l taught
him was to lie down. This was not easy
to accomplish as It might seem, for II took
a block and fall at front and rear, with a
gang of fifteen or twenty men at each end.
1 stood al one side, and as l said Get down
his feet were drawn out from under him.
This had to be repeated only a few times
before he learned what Get down meant
for bin.
ITO teach him to stand on his hind feet
and en- his head block and fall on a beam
over his head d snatch block and two dead
men in the floor and the services of an
other elephant We're all required. AS l said
Get up the elephant in harness walked for
ward, and Toms front feet went up, while
lis hind feet were chained together When
l said Stand on your head his front feet,
which had been previously chained, re-
manned on the floor while his hind feet
We're drawn up until they almost literally
kicked the BEAM
Il neSe were MS nrSt lessons. When he
learned to drill to ht-about-face' and
left-about-face,' 1 stood one side of him
and another man on the other and we each
had a prod AS l comma nded right about
race, he was pushed over to the right, and
left-about-face he was prodded in that di-
rection. l taught him to waltz in much the
same way. onIy as pushed him back
and forth we made him go clear around
ana now he Is one of the best walters in
the country. He learned to ring the bell
and fan himself in one lesson. Both re-
qulre the same motion, ard they really
the same trick. although people never think
of that. Yes, he knows which is which and
rever picks up the fan or napkin when l tell
him to ring the bell. 1 only had to put each
one at time, in his trunk, and with the
fan and bell | shook it. and with the nap
Kin wiped first one side of his mouth and
then the other. He took to hand-organ
grinding like Mulberry street Italian. 1t
is one of his favOritc tricks.
The elephant is the only animal whose
legs all bend the same way His hind legs
bend IN, and the position required for creep
ing is not very comfortable but he does il
as well a baby His performances on
the harmonica are the most surprising to
onlookers. but the fact is that all the in
telligence required for that Is holding the
instrument AS he must breathe through
his trunk. every breath moves it back and
forth. l discovered that he holds his breath
when he stands on his hind legs, by trying
to get him to do that and play the har-
monica at the same time: but his front feet
are no sooner up than the sound ceases un-
til they down again.
His tub is about two and one-half feet
high and it took me about an hour to get
him to mount it the first time and as long
to get him down from it once he was up.
l had finally to improvise step from it be-
fore he would come down. He went right
up again, however. and came down, and
repeated the movement several times in the
first lesson. Now he mounts it and stands
on his hind feet, his front feet, his side feet
and waltZes and changes on it,
People all seem to think that an elephant
has no sense of feeling because his skin is
thick and coarse. The fact is that his skin
IS as sensitive baby's and if you tickle
him with straw you will find it out. The
flies and mosquitoes are great disturbers of
his peace and he is tossing hay on his back
now to dislodge them.
Tom had his annual bath and oiling a
few days age and the latter operation pre-
vents his skin from getting too dry In his
native state he, treats himself to mud baths
and keeps himself in condition.
The feet of the elephant have to be re-
paired frequently. for they as suscepti-
BILE to corns and stone bruises as the feet
of people. and they have to be cut and
trimmed. You wouldn't think it. would you
that twice around Toms front foot when
he is standing with his full weight upon it,
is equal TO his height? 1t is true, and it is
a rule that seldom varies an inch in any
elephant.
The African elephants have only four
toes and their ears are very large. The
Asiatic elephants have five toes and their
ears are smaller. There are few African
elephants in this country, not more than
three or four. Not long ago, at an exhibit
ton in this city, there was skin of leather
With small ears and comparatively fine tex
ture the hide from all elephants has too
large pores to make it of use), and 1t was
labeled, Hide from an African elephant
an inc oh hey,