Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-01-25
ELEPHANT AND ENGINE.

1t is not only in south Africa, and by
statesmen who ought to know better,
that the march of civilization is
opposed and obstinacy pitted against
progress. The elephant has many hu-
man qualities, and, if the story that
comes to us from Perak, one Of the
Straits Settlements, be well founded
occasionally shares with politicians
hardly less intelligent their prejudice
against the spirit of the age. 1t ap-
pears that big tusker, which had
long been an object of pursuit to the
sportsmen of that remote district,
wandered on to the railway line and
tried conclusions with the engine of a
goods train, charging it repeatedly,
and keeping up the contest for nearly
an hour. The engine was reversed in
the hope that the beast would quit the
field and allow the train to proceed,
but as soon as there was any attempt
to renew the journey the elephant re-
turned to the encounter and resumed
it's obstructive tactics. The driver was
afraid to charge the brute, lest the
and the contest might have gone on
much longer had not the elephant
backed into the engine, and, setting its
forefeet firmly between the rails, en-
deavored to shove the train backward
with it's hind quarters.
The driver took advantage OF the OPP
portunity and put on steam, gradually
hi
maneuver one of the wheels of the en-
CINE went over the hind legs of the an
imal, which was put out of it's misery
by the guard of a following passenger
train. This is not the first time that
the engine in question has encountered
an elephant on the line. Just about
five years ago while it was drawing
a passenger train on a dark night
through the heavy tropical forest, a
sudden shock was felt, and the train
came to a standstill. The engine and
tender were thrown off the metals and
half way down the embankment,
though, fortunately, they did not drag
the carriages after them. When the
driver, who had been pitched off, went
back to ascertain the cause of the &C
cident, he saw large bull elephant at
the bottom of the embankment on the
other side of the line. It died few
minutes after the collision from the
violent shock and loss of blood, it's off
foreleg having been shattered and
pi:ce of the trunk torn off. Beyond
the fright ard snock caused by the sud-
den stopping of the train, which, luck
lily, was travelling at only Is miles an
hour, no injury resulted to any Of the
| passengers. In the same month Of the
same year a similar accident occurred
on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in In
| dia
On pitch DARK night a mail train
was running at the rate of 81 miles an
hour through very thick jungle which
was known to hold wild elephants.
The driver felt al obstruction and at
| tempted to reverse, but the engine left
the metals, dragging with it a brake
van, the carriage of the locomotive SUI
perintendent and some other carriages,
but without causing injury to any of
| the passengers or officials At first it
was thought that the accident had
been brought about by cattle straying
| on the line, but the officials soon found
dead elephant. Apparently the ami
nal had been crossing the line just as
the train came up, and had been struck
| by the engine and hurled down the
bank. The agent of the company sent
home one Of the tusks to be put up in
the board room as a memorial of the
occurrence. These instances of a train
| being thrown off the line through col
| lision with an elephant show that.
while such accidents are pretty sure to
| be "bad for the elephant" they are
| also attended with considerable dan
ger to rolling stock, and even to hui
man life. The latter consideration
completes the analogy we have already
drawn.-London Standard