Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-04-22
ELEPHANT DISPLAYS WISDOM

Sion anu Brings 0ack q 1fuants
Chicago Chronicle.
The biggest elephant known TO be in
captivity is registered at the Coliseum
this week. He is known by the title
Of Old Badly.
For generation he has been the
star feature of a circus He is prob
ably as old as the declaration of in
dependence and weight about four tons
All elephants are said to be wise, but
this one is conceded to be, by animal
students, generally the smartest of his
species A strange sight is the easy and
clever way in which Old Badly gets in
and out of the huge car in which he
travels.
All his travelling mates, and there
are twenty-five of them, walk down a
heavy gang plank that inclines from the
car door to the ground. The car doors
are ten feet high, which makes the
big elephants stoop to get through as
they step out upon the descending
plank. Old Badly is so tall and so
wide that he cannot get out of the
car door until the gang plank is taken
away. He then drops to his knees, and.
wriggling his great body forward, slow
ly manages to get his front feet out
and upon the ground
The floor of the car is about five feet
above the ties of the roadbed, but this
does not keep Badly from reaching the
solid foundation of earth without mis-
hap or trying delay. Once his forefeet
are on the ground, he draws his body
forward, allowing his hind legs to drag
along the car floor. In this way he is
soon able to get one hind foot out,
and then the rest is easy.
Is Leader of the Herd.
All the other elephants of the herd
look up to Old Badly as sort Of ad-
wiser and protector. He seems to feel
this, and has quite as much to do with
bringing to book any of the family who
go out of the way of right doing as
their master and trainer, Herr Souder
In fact, Herr Souder claims that Old
Badly can understand English as we'll
as man, at least when it is spoken to
him. At the winter quarters of the
show in Baraboo, Wis, Old Badly is
never chained and is depended upon to
look after the herd. Last winter one of
the wild girls of the elephant family
who has an unconquerable appetite for
cigarettes. named Laura Jean Libbey.
got away while Old Badly was mapping
and made trip to cigar shop in the
center of the village. She had been
there before, and as soon as the to-
baeco dealer saw her he began to sup
ply her with cigarettes, which was the
wise thing to do to keep the shop
from being wrecked. AS soon as Old
Badly missed his charge he tore from
the building in double quick time for
the tobacconist's shop, where he knew
the truant could be found He grabbed
Laura Jean Libbey by the ear, and
twisted it until she cried in pain. Then
he picked up long iron poker and
belabored the truant all the way back
to the winter barn.
Severely Beats Thief
Another member of this interesting
family, one of African origin, with
big, fan-shaped ears and little head,
had a great habit of stealing. The
keepers had tried every way to break
him. During performances he would
reach out his trunk and deity take
handkerchiefs, belt buckles, ETC., from
unsuspecting visitors. He would run
away every chance he got and
steal everything ne could from the vii
layers and hide the stolen articles in
all sorts of places about the animal
quarters. When Old Badly was called
upon to take the wrongdoer in hand
he let him escape two or three times
and then furtively watched what was
done with the things purloined One
frosty morning after the sinner had re-
turned from his stealing trip Old Badly
ran him into corner and beat him
fiercely with a small stake. Then he
took him by the ear to the places
where the stolen articles were hidden
and made him take each in turn back
to the place from which it was stolen.
After that Old Badly refused to let
him eat for several days any OF the
bran Of which elephants are so fond.
Since this heroic treatment the Afri-
can elephant knows the difference be-
tween mine and thine" and will not
even indulge the little dishonesty pc
culiar to his kind of dipping into his
neighbours luncheon.
Plays on Great Piano.
Still another and possibly more re-
markable proof that Old Badly has
something besides bone back of his ex-
pansive forehead, or at all events
sort of intuition that guides him
rightly, is found in his keepers story OF
the way he helped him to build up