The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-20
TEACHING ELEPHANTS TRICKS.
The Huge Beasts Vary Greatly in Intel


The Huge Beasts Vary Greatly in Intel
ligence
Scores of people ask me every day."
said Keeper Snyder, or the elephant
house in Central Park, recently, 'how
anything so id-looking and thick
skinned as an elephant can be taught
anything. | tell them all that elephants
are not unlike children. Some are too
dull to learn anything, and others catch
an idea quickly. Tom" he went on,
/ pointing to the large elephant who was
| busily engaged in throwing hay on his
back, although irascible in disposition,
| is quite intelligent. The first trick
taught him was to lie down. This was
not so easy to accomplish as it might
! seem, for it took a block -and-fall at
front and rear, with gang of fifteen or
twenty men at each end. / stood at one
side, and as l said Get down., his feet
We're drawn out from under him. This
mad to be repeated only few times,
before he learned what Get down meant
for him.
To teach him to stand on his hind
feet and on his head, block -and-fall
on beam over his head, snatch block
and two dead men in the floor, and the
services of another elephant We're all re-
quired. AS l said Get up the elephant
in harness walked forward and Toms
front feet went up, While his hind feet
were chained together. When / said
Stand on your head his front feet,
which had been previously chained, re-
manned on the floor, while his hind feet
were drawn up until they almost lite
rally kicked the BEAM
These We're his first lessons. When
he learned to drill to 'right-about-face
and left-about face / stood on one side
Of him and another man on the other,
and we each had a prod. AS 1 com
manded right about-face,' he was
pushed over to the right and left
about-face,' he was prodded in that d-
rectiou. | taught him to waltz in much
the same way, only as we pushed him
back and forth we made him go clear
around, and now he is one of the best
walters in the country. He learned to
ring the bell and fan himself in one les
son, Both require the same motion,
and they are really the same trick, al
he knows which is which and never
picks up the fan or napkin when l tell
him to ring the bell, only had to put
each. one at a time in his trunk, and
with the fan and bell l shook it, and
with the napkin wiped first one side of
his mouth and then the other He took
to hand-organ grinding like a Mulber-
ry-street Italian. 1t is one of his favor
ite tricks.
THE elephant is the only animal
whose legs all bend the same way. His
hind legs bend in, and the position re-
quired for creeping is not very COM
Portable but he does 1t as well as
bly,. His performances on the harmon
lea are the most surprising to on-look-
ers but the fact is that all the intelli
gence required for that is holding the
instrument As he must breathe
through his trunk, every breath moves
it back and forth. ! discovered that he
holds his breath when he stands on his
hind legs, by trying to get him to do
that and play the harmonica at the
same tme but his front feet are no
sooner up than the sound ceases until |
they are down again.
MS lUb lS dDDut WV anu
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 be was up. had finally to impro- |
wise a step from it before 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 ele-
plant has no sense of feeling, because
his skin is thick and coarse. The fact is
that his skin is as sensitive as a baby's, |
and if you tickle him with a straw you
will find it out. The flies and mosqui
toes are great disturbers of his peace,
and he is tossing hay on his back now to
them.
Tom had his annual bath and oiling
4 few DAYS ago, and the latter operation
his skin from getting too dry.
In his native state he treats himself to
mud baths and keeps himself in condi-
lion.
THE feet of the elephant have to be
,eraired frequently, for they are as sus-
'GDIlDlG 10 tblIlS anu SNpii'-'i ti'2N-'' ~ !
he feet of people, and they have to be
tut and trimmed. You wouldn't think
t, would you. that twice around Toms
'front.' foot, when he is standing with his
'ul weight upon it, is equal to his
height? 1t is true, and it is rule that
t seldom varies an inch in any elephant.
"The African elephants have only four
oes and their ears are very large. The
Asiatic elephants have five toes ana
heir ears are smaller. There are few
African elephants in this country, not
more than three or four. Not long ago,
t an exhibition in this city, there was a
kin of leather. with small ears and
fine texture the hide
rom all elephants has too pores to {
make it of use), and it was labeled {
rTidr frnr7 an African elephant Peo- ;
,le don't know anything about them -
Jew York Evening Post.
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