The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-01-14
CORvALLIs,h OREGON, JANUARY 1908.
ectric current did not make quick
work of Topsy.

0CtTIC CuTIoub ulu uOt mdh0 QuACh
work of Topsy.
Sharkey, the electrician and exec
utioner-in-chief. hurried to his lever.
The man with the cyanide of potas-s
sium approached Topsy. She took
the carrot from his hand, encircled
her mouth several times with her
trunk, and finally began to chew
the mass of poison.
"Are you ready?p shouted Shar-
key from the house where the cur
rent was to be turned on.
Ready" responded the keeper
of Topsy, standing near her side to
see that she did not kick off the
deadly shoe.
There was an instantaneous burst
of flames from the planks at Topsy's
feet, which made lurid glare all
about her. The animal suddenly
stifened, kneeling slightly forward.
She was dead that moment, but the
$500 volts held her ~in a state of
rigor for ten seconds, all of which
time she stood stiff upon her feet,
leaning forward as if she were
dummy elephant badly fashioned.
Not a sound came from her. The
flames rose from her feet to her
body as the planks rapidly yielded
to the enormous heat.
"Cut it off" shouted DIR B3ther-
ridge, and as the current was tur--
ned off Topsy fell to the ground,
head foremost.
The big rope about the elephants
throat had not drawn taut.. AS she
fell the knot was just tightening,
The doctor said Topsy was already
dead from the electric shock, and
the strangulation was unnecessary.
Topsy was the original "Baby
Elephant" She was brought to
this country by Adam Forepaueh
twenty eightyears ago. She wei.
ghed at the time of her death four
tons, and she was worth 81, 900.
In her babyhood Topsy was tau
ght to perform many tricks, and
she was the most valuable of Fore
paugh's performers before she de-
veloped a bad temper, which was
in 1900. That year she killed her
keeper in Waco, Texas, by dashing
his brains out against the floor. At
Paris, Texas, the same year, she
killed another. keeper who had suc-
ceeded the one she had slsin.
On May % last, while in the cir
Gus then showing in Brooklyn,
Topsy killed J Fielding Blout, of.
Fort Wayne, Ind, because he gave
her a lighted cigarette. She was
quietly standing behind her
ropes when he handed the burning
cigarette to her. The moment it
burnt her sensitive trunk Topsy
made dash at the man and seized
him about the waist beat his body
upon the ground until nearly every
bone in his body was broken.
After that, the elephant was sold
to the Luna Park proprietors. She
has been used in one of the exhibits
at Coney Island ever since.
Recently Topsy began again to
show signs of a bad temper. Police
man Connolly arrested "Whitney"
Alt one night for riding through the
streets on the elephants back on a
gal1ob. He found that he could
not take the rider to the station
without taking the elephant too, SO
he took them both. Then he wascom
pelled to allow the two prisoners to
go home, for if "Whitney" had been
locked up the policeman would Of
had IAN elephant on his hands"
whose reputation was not good, nd
that was more than Connolly b ad
bargained for.
After that, Topsy began to cut
Icapers in Luna Park which made
the hair rise on the heads of the
workmen there. She ran them all
out Of the park last Friday, and
| then her owners decided to kill her.
Toneka. Kan. Jan. 1O.-The coal