The Portland daily press., 1900-01-12
NATURE OF ELEPHANTS.
Illustrated by the story of the Keeper
sfOld Romeo.
(From the phlladelphIa Timely


(From the Philadelphia Times.)
The killing In Columbus, Ohio. she
other day Of Patsy Forepaugh, trainer
for Forspsugh ~ sells Circus. BY an
elephant adds another to the long list Of
those who have met their death through
the m alevolent instin ,ts Of these bulky
brutss, who unjustly bear reputation
for docility.
You who take your children TO circus
performances With menagsrie sdjunots.
where these pachydsrms are fed with
peanuts By childish hands, little dream
Of the naniaoal tempers and instincts Of
the beasts. It's only little more than
two years ago when, ct the winter quar-
tors OF the Barnum Sc Bailey Circus. at
Bridgeport. Con n, an elephant eleven
feet high weighing three and one-half
tons, valued ut $1,000, and feature Of
the show for twenty years, was put TO
death after two days dosing with prussic
aoid because the alarming developments
Of his man-killing disposition forbade
any keeper to 60 near him.
| In Charles Reade's novel Of "Jack OF
All Trades" jack. after various advent
urss, becomes an elephant trainer. and he
gives an account Of the experience IN
that line, in which the elephant Dick
plays an important part. The animal
killed several keepers and Jack only mas
tered her by using sharp pitchfork,
which he plunged into her SIDES ct the
least chow Of disobedience, As result
Of his experience, he pronounced the
''full -grown elephant the ounningsst,
most treaohsrous and bloodthirsty beast
that ever played the butcher among
mank ind
All this brings to mind q talk this mar
rator once bad with Stuart Craven, the
veteran elephant trainer. and the man
| who acted as obstetrician for Hebe, when
ON the morning Of March 10. 1850, ct
Twenty. third street and Ridge avenue.
| In this city. the winter quarters Of what
was then Cooper & Bailsy's Great Lon
don Circus, the first elephant born In
captivity made Its Appearance.
The chat with Craven was intrinsically
interesting, but In addition presents the
peculiar feature Of exhibiting him IS q
Il
proof upon proof In substant intion OF the
stat emsnt ma 10 by Charles Reade's hero
of the malevolent Qualities ascribed to the
animal. This 10 Craven's story:
sin the story Of Charles Reade," said
he, "there's a great deal OF bosh. OF
course, there have been some bad ele-
plants. but he takes one single animal
/ and condemns the whole family. say
there's no occasion to have any trouble
with an elephant II he's properly handled,
but, like Tom Elliott. the trainer In the
book, o good many of tho keepers In this
country have been brutes-men with very
little intelligence, who knew little about
elephnnty and nothing aboCt anything
else. Now. there was Romeo. l believe
that II l had kept him In charge he
would BIZ alive today and the best card In
the country. Let me tell you about
Romeo. and you'll get good idea of
what they call Q bad elephant. You
see, they have spells that come on them
"a kind of fever-and they become I'M
manageable. II spell comes on when
they are loose, there's going to Be trouble
However, II they were handled right.
don't think they'd have the spells. But
about Romeo He was one Of the eight
that Barnum had brought from the island
of Ceylon in 1889. He was called Canada
then. He game here with the reputation
| of having killed two men In his own
country. These elephants travelled
around the country two or three years.
and then four of them were bought by 4.
| n. and j. Mabie, Of Delavan. VIE, who
sent them to their show then travelling
| in the south. Two years afterward,
! was engaged In New York TO 90 down
and take charge of them. / went to
| jackson, Miss, where the show was, and
| went into the tent as spectator. That
l was the first time saw Romeo. i walked
| pa It the elephants and as coon as Romeo
saw me he spotted Inc. de knew at once
l Y o. mt ~ "a "a N nj
head and smellsd me all over. paid no
attention to him, hut walked on. In
stead OF turning to the next person and
looking for apples, Romeo followed me
as far as his chain would let hiiu and
kept his head turned toward me until l
| Raymond the next day and there
showed the manager my papers. Before
| this wanted to keep incognito and taks
look at the elephants. The man who
| had the elephants before me was Just
such a man as Charles Reade dssoribesiin
| Iom Elliott, n low, drunken brute. When
| he heard that was to replaos him. he
| was terribly mad and gave up every thing
though l wanted to keep him. That
night he left and i took charge. As soon
as saw the elephants | saw something
| was wrong. The man had gone away
without fastening Romeo securely.
The chain around his leg was only fast
| ened to a light stake. / saw there was
| going to be trouble. went under the
rore and stood besiie him and patted him
he took me up with his trunk and set
me gently outside che rope. / went IN
again. This time he picked me MP and
threw me nt least twenty feet, and IL he
could have followed me he surely would
have killed me. Then We began to light
him. We got the other elephants out OF
the road and began to bent Romeo with
clubs and poles. He had about twenty
| fl We feet of chain, and, OF course, we
oonlu not get very near him. lie rushed
after us as far as b Is chain would let him,
and we kept out of his road. punching
him with poles all the time. Sometim mes
he get hold of the clubs we threw at him
and then we all starr psded. He threw
those clubs back with foros enough to cut
a man In two. We fought him oil night,
but could make no headway at all, ex-
oept to aggravate him. The next morn
ing the show moved on, and l was bound
to 10 How with Roniso. We managed 10
get the chain from his leg fastened TO the
other three elephants and then we lot
them looss. / was already on horseback