St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-09-26

, the elephants than with other children.
They take as good care of him as any
nurse could. Every morning they are
restless till he comes. And as for him.
he is always in here. He plays among
their feet and lets them swing him up
on their backs all day long. They
wouldn't step on him, no indeed. They
take more care not to hurt him than
human being would. See here"
He lifted the boy up to Babes left
ear and commanded: Listen. Babe
Something to say to you"
Babe stuck her ear out and inclined
her head toward the boy, while he
talked into her ear. Then she nodded
her head wisely and grunted.
Healey dropped the boy. Evan
stepped alongside of Babe and slapped
her on the. leg as high up as he could
reach, which wasn't higher than q
short mans knee Down, Babe, down, y
he said Babe looked at him with q
funny look of appeal in her eye. She
wiggled her tail and firted her trunk
and turned her head away, saying
plainly. Lets talk Of something else. .
/ But the baby trainer vas insistent
And Babe sighed-a rumbling, roaring
sigh, as If steam engine were to
whisper: '"Oh, my!"
Then. with weary grunt, she held
her trunk out to him coaxingly. But
Evan only patted it and cried shrilly:
Down, Babe, I say" So Babe, look
ing as If she had no friend on earth.
grunted once more and dropped labor
iously to her fore knees. With anoth-
Ter plunge that shook the elephant
house she let herself fall cumbrously
on her side, AMI stuck her four feet
into the air. Then she held out her
trunk and wiggled her upturned ear.
Evan scrambled with hands and knees
up her massive, throbbing side and
perched himself, a little bright spot,
on top of the great tonnage of black
flesh ~ Soc @ -
Then Basilhad to go through the per-
Torrance and she, too, begged Evan to
let her OF, but finally did what she was
hidden like lamb. Each elephant at
once searched his clothes for sugar
when he let her get up.
BASIL" said Mr.. Healey, lis one OF
the biggest elephants in America now.
She is little more than nine feet high,
i, and Babe is almost as big, but 80 years
younger. Basil and Evan have been
friends almost since Evan was born.
He was born in Willis avenue, New
York, and when he was only few
months old we came to Glen island and
ever since then Evan and the elephants
have played together. When we first
came here Basil learned to wheel Evan
around in the baby carriage, and 1t
soon got so that we could turn her
loose with the little one and feel that
he was safer in the protection of his
! great nurse than he would have been
under the care of any human attend
ant.
While the trainer was speaking the
big brutes were jostling each other to
reach Evan and tap him with their
trunks. He stood between their legs,
leaning against them, and the ele-
plants never moved limb without
looking and feeling to make sure that
they would not step on him. 1t wasn't
possible to see a bit of him when he
got well behind one of the huge legs,
but he was the master of the elephants
for all that-Kipling's Toomaii in real
life.
He gets his love for animals legiti-
mately, for his father has made many
trips to Asia and Africa to get wild
animals for American shows. besides
having been a collector of snakes and
big reptiles in Cuba and South Amer
lea. He has been an unusually sue
cessful animal trainer almost all his
life, and Evan has made up his mind
that he will become one, too.--N. Y.
Letter in Kansas City Star.