The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-17

| witnessing the unheStating obedience
OF the one that they make too great de-
Inands on the forbearance Of the other.
AT the present time the Indian govern
ment, with the exception of few males
Kept for parade only employs female
elephants for this reason; even so it is
believed that the pay or pensions of ma
houts are calculated with reference to
the conviction that they pursue dan
gerous trade. The native princes, on
| the contrary, keep male elephants in
| large numbers for purposes of state,
| ana 1t Is among the attendants of these
| animals that accidents" most COM
monty happen. Experience, as we'll as
! common report, which declares that ev-
cry elephant kills mahout in it's life
time shows that in far the greater
number of cases the person attacked is
| the animals own attendant.
| This at first sight seems9 a contradic-
ton to thesgeneral behavior of animals
in captivity, or even in domestication.
| Generally speaking, they are specially
attached to the persons who feeds them
| and gives them exercise, and If disposed
| to be savage vent their anger on stran-
! gers. There are a few instances on rec
! ord of horses attacking their grooms,
but this, as a rule is only because the
attendant happened to be the only per-
son near when the animal was in a bad
temper. The only domestic animals
which habitually attack their attend
ants are the bulls kept for stock breed
ing In England, which are responsible
for most intentional homicides caused
by animals in this country.
The grounds for the i'll will which the
elephant often harbors toward it's In
dian mahout lie partly in the animals
temperament, partly in the character of
these men. AS most elephants behave
with propriety to their drivers, we must
believe that either the greater number
of the mahouts do their duty by the
beasts, or that the latter are exception
ally forgivng. But there must be more
than mere hearsay in the general belief
that the mahouts commonly steal and
appropriate very large part of the ele-
plants allowance Of food, that they are
in consequence often half starved and
hungry, and that t he men use their
steel hooked and spiked "ankus'' in a
very merciless way OF, animals which
are often no. in condition to do the
an elephants keep is from four to. eight
pounds a month, in proportion and
quality which is fixed in reference to the
work to be done. the margin for steal !
ing Is very great, being reckoned be- /
tween the minimum necessary to keep
the animal alive on low diet, and that ,
required for keeping him in fine condi-
ton on the march in campaign, when
he is allowed extra rations, and even a
bottle of rum per diem. No other ami
NAL is clever enough to know that over
work and undertaking are probably |
caused by the direct agency of the man
who maintains him. But it Is pretty |
certain that the extraordinary. intelli-
gence of the elephant does enable 1t to
put two and two together, and to con-
clude that the person who gives him
little food ought not to punish him for |
not being up to his work In any case,
the elephant bears no gratitude to the |
man who, if he can, gives him starva- /
ton rations. and Is his daily slave |
driver; and as long as native usage |
holds that "the driver and three gene |
rations of his family shall live on the |
beast he is paid to nourish," it must be
expected that THE animal will occasion
ally try the experiment as to whether
the next generation can possibly be |
worse than its present tormentor. 1t is
sometimes forgotten that an elephant |
may live for seventy or eighty years, or
even longer, in the service Of man, and
that in the unchanging east he may,
through this long life be farmed as a
kind of property by the same family Of
that the brutality of the faith
sr. IL he be a brute, is learned by the
children and grandchildren, and that, If
he wretched elephant Is in bad hands,
he has to put up with practically two of
our working lives Of i'll treatment and
The wonder is not
hat it's temper occasionally goes amss.
)ut that it does not break OUT oftener
The inference is that the natural tenn
Der of the elephant Is almost the best
md most easy going of that of any
BEAST. All Hindoo traditions and folk
ore agree in thie. The elephant is the
ype of bonhomie and easy geniallty. 1t
this belief which encourages its
public" to take liberties with it on
which they would venture with no 9TH
r animal whatever.--Spectator.