Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-03-05
MAD SEASON.
Two Months During Which Trainers
Have to BE Extremely Watch
full of the Animals.

From February 1 to All Fools day
every elephant trainer in the United
States watches his huge pets vigilant-
Iy. 1t is the season in which elephants
go must, or mad, says the st. Louis
Post-Dispatch. For two months the
jungle fever rules the pachyderms, an
instinct which has survived centuries
of domestication, and which ofttlmes
causes the tamest brute to become
crazed. In Indian jungles during the
must season the elephant herds com
mingle, and the lordly bulls fight for
supremacy. In the circus winter quar-
tiers and in the menagerie the solitary
elephants are very likely to go mad.
"Once must, always mad" says Steve
Lawrence, a man who has handled ele-
plants for 20 years, and has the rever-
ence of a mahout for the elephant
folk" Lawrence has known a dozen
elephants who have gone mad. He has
officiated at the execution of two mad
elephants, and was acquainted with
most of the man-killing elephants who
achieved a CORY notoriety.
There was Sport" said Lawrence,
"a huge brute 80 years old, that was
executed a. r 'timore three years ago.
He was hum d. ibbetfor the murder
of two Of his l iners. The gallows
was a railroad wrecking derrick. A
half-inch hawser was placed in the pull
ley at the end of the long arm, and a
moose tied around Sports neck. The
other end of the rope was attached to
a switch engine, and as it backed away
the elephant was pulled to the top OF
the gibbet and left suspended. He
died in eight minutes, and didn't make
much fuss about it, either.
"We hung Jolly, a mean sick elephant,
in the same ann Jolly was a
cross brute, but never killed her man.
While the animals were in transit from
Scranton, Pa, to Baltimore, the door.
of Jolly's car became loose, and she
fell out. The train was stopped, and
we recovered our elephant, but she
had suffered a dislocated shoulder. We
decided to kill her, and did so with a
rope.
Charley, a man-killing elephant,
which once was the star of the Wal
lace company's herd, killed several men
before he was executed. He stamped
Henry Hoffman, at Peru, Ind. and later
drowned a keeper who had taken him
to the river for a bath. The brute OBJ
jected to leaving the water, and the
keeper struck him. Charley twined his
trunk around the man and held him
under the water. When the man
ceased struggling Charley left him and
walked ashore. Charley was hung, a
double murderer.
81 knew Topsy, the man killer, ex-
ecuted in New York lately. well. She
was the original baby trick elephant,
and was the most docile brute in the
Forepaugh herd. Thousands of cir
cus-goers have seen her perform. AS
she grew larger the sense of her pow
er came to her, and she began to show
her temper. l lost track of her dur
ing the last five years, but | l heard that
she had killed a man in Texas, and had
mangled many persons.
"Never trust an elephant. [ have
trained them, slept on their legs, and
placed my life in their keeping a thou
said times, yet l know they cannot be
trusted.
madness comes to them stealthily.
The keeper never realizes that his pet
is must until he is caught in the in
exorable trunk, and, perhaps, dashed
to death.
"a man killer Stays in two ways. He
losses his victim high in the air, or
places him under his feet and stamps
his life out. There is a possibility of
escape in the first instance, but none
whatever in the latter case.
February and March are the dan
gerous months for elephant handlers.
81 have never heard of any mad
elephant being cured. Once must, al
ways must the Indian proverb,
my experience supports. The brute
should be killed the first time he runs
amuck. He can never be trusted, and
no matter how tame he may a%fterward
appear, he is but waiting his chance
to kill a man.
81 can trust a lion, but / have no
faith in the elephants character. He
is apt to prove as treacherous as his
natural enemy, the tiger.