The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-11
HOW TIP WAS CAPTURED.
SOME RECoLLECTIONS OF AN AMI
NAL HUNTER.


pOsition-A Record of Killing TO
BE Proud of-The Boys Irritating
Music-The Battle in the Receiv-
ing Depot-Snved by the Brute.
From New York Commercial Advertiser.
A man close upon 50 years of age, slight
of build, weight not more than 125 pounds,
and with a voice as soft as a womans-
that was James s. briggs, as he sat in the
reading room of a New York hotel the
other evening. He didn't look over
strong, and one would not have picked
him out as a man Of nerve, and yet
Prof. briggs" as his friends call him,
has helped to capture many wild beasts
and undergone many hardships in the
field. For twenty-five years he has been
connected with the great animal house
of Hamburg which supplies the rest of
the world with wild animals, and hun
dreds of the captures have been made
under the Professors" personal direc-
tons.
1T may be called a curious coinci-
dence," he said in his gentle way. when
asked to narrate some of his adventures,
that the man who captured one of the
first elephants owned by the geological
gardens is now here, after period of
twenty years, to try to tell them another
capture by him in the same locality In
Africa. Yes, l was the captor of Tippo
(Tip, the elephant who was poisoned by
order of the park board three or four
years ago, and the news of his taking off
upset me more than l care to acknowl-
edge. l know that he was an ugly brute,
and had a long record of killings laid up
against him, but il seemed q shame 10
poison him. If the old fellow could have
been given a show to battle for his life
no matter what the odds. his death would
have been more fitting His capture was
one of the oldest things l ever met with
! had been sent to South Africa with four
assistants and carte blanche to hire ma
tives by the hundred. / was after ele-
plants, lions, hyenas, serpents, rhinocer-
ouses and buffalOes, and | went up coun-
try with a small army of natives. Two of
the native tribes were at war and as
they quit fighting each other on our APP
proach and both pitched into us. we had
job on our hands for several weeks.
When we had licked them out we found
all the big game frightened away and
had to journey another hundred miles into
the interior. Things were looking blue for
me as an animal hunter when l started
out one morning TO examine an elephant
plt We lldu Jug the udy DclOic vi my
way to the pit l ran across 'Tippo.' He
had been frightened while walking along
a path leading to q spring, and in his hur-
ry to leave the path had damned him
self between two trees.
He had been securely caught by a re-
bound just forward of the hips, and as his
head was on lower ground he couldn
exert his full strength. He may have been
there couple of days when L found him.
lie neither trumpeted defiance nor made
any effort TO gel loose. lie was in The
sulks and y was easy enough to figure
that he owed somebody one and would get
even al the first oppor tunGty. Before cut
ting one of the trees away to release him
we had MIN fast bound with ropes and
chains. III was three days before he would
eat or drink. l presume he felt that his
| dignity had been insuted by the easy way
we had gathered him in. When he had
| got his appetite l sent him off to Durham,
and on the way he killed four natives,
and destroyed the biggest part OF ma
tive village. AT Durham, during the four
| months he waited for my arrival, 'Tippo'
managed to kill three more men and half
a dozen oxen, and SO he had a pretty fair
record even before leaving home
Il returned to Hamburg with my cargo,
| and II vas on shipboard that l made
dead set 10 win the elephants friendship.
| | succeeded only after a fashion. He
| would allow me moCe liberties than any
| body else. Once or twice on the voyage
| he tried to break loose and wreck things
but when he found mis- fastenings too
| strong he gave up all hopes. When en-
elephant defies you and is licked into sub
| mission he never becomes dangerous aft
| erwarA 'Tippo' was never defiant. He
| was sCund.y beaten after his outbreaks,
but he would never give up. He was evil
| IDENTITY born sulky and obstinate, and " e
| had not half finished the voyage when l
| hat na xK-n11d al
! ways remain a bad elephant In the
| house AT Hamburg We have a receiving
depot. For two weeks after their arrival
all animals are placed in this depot to re-
| cuperate. 1t may interest you to know
that an Wild animals suffer from seaalck-
ness 10 a great er or lesser extent. l have
seen a rhinoceros so il that the tears ran
| from his eyes, and have had a boa-oon-
strictor so used up by the motion OF the
vessel that it would take him weeks 70
recover. The hyena seems 10 suffer less
than any other beast. but all go to the re-
ceivlng depot as have told you. This
depot is a one-story brick structure about
200 feet hong by 80 VIDE. There is room
in il for a whole cargo Of captives, with
a railroad track outside and adj conven-
inces for shipping. There are five or six
men detailed 10 care for the animals when
the house is fun. On my return from that
first trip my cargo filled ever stall and
cage We had five elephants, three or
four CRATES, two rhfnoceroses, four buff
fa,oes. three of -four Glands and other an
imals in The stalls, and the cages of lions.
wolves, hyenas and jackals numbered
twenty-four. There was left over from a
previous cargo three tigers, and so We had
the entire variety.
1.-THE rules about an animal house are
very strict, but there are employees who
always want to be funny. One of the at
tendants was a thick-headed German boy,
whose duty it was to bring in forage. He
was careful enough 20 keep out of reach,
but he had an itching to stir up the ele-
phants BY accident soon after I had my
beasts landed this boy found out that
the notes of mouth organ excessively
irritated one of my troop of elephants.
None of the other big beasts seemed 10
be at ali put out and the rhinoceroses and
buffaloes appear rather to enjoy 1t; but
this one elephant had an ear for music
and didn't want the cheap kind. The
BOY was warned to desist, but he planned
reveDoa AT 6 o'clock at night all the