Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-08-08
ELEPHANT TOMMY.
How He made Things Very Interest
 ing at Coney Island.

l Ing at Coney Island.
 Tommy, the big elephant which Bostock, the animal snowman, inn ported and kept for weeks for the | government pending the decision of the customs authorities as to what du- l ty should be paid on the beast, got loose in the Sea Beach Palace this week and caused more real real excitement than Coney Island has known in a long time. Two men were seriously injured, a number of ami malls were let loose and the interior of the Sea Beach Palace after Tommy was finally subdued looked as though a tornado had passed through it.
 The damage to the building alone, l 1t was said, would amount to $700 The injured men were George Brown, the elephant trainer, who sus- tained a fracture of the left leg, con- tusions. and internal injuries, and Henry Sanders who received internal injuries. Both Of them were taken to the Kings county hospital.
 Tommy was not feeling well yester. day, and his temper rendered it un- 1 safe for even his keepers to go near him with impunity. He has been subject to occasional fits of ugliness, 1 though nothing so bad as was his mood yesterday. MT Bostock decided that the elephant was i'll and needed something to quiet him, and so an at- tendant was sent to d Surf avenue drug store for something soothing. The druggist put up about a quarter of pound of cocaine. which he said would quiet any elephant alive.
 About ' o'clock that night good dose was almost immediate. An hour later the animal was in a stupor which lasted until 6 o'clock this morning, when he began to show signs of ac- tivity. It was plainly to be seen that the cocaine had not improved his tem- per, for his little eyes glowed like two live coals and he tugged at his chains attached to the rings in the floor un- til the whole building seemed to shake He was growing more furious every minute and his efforts to get loose were redoubled with such great effect that at 6:30 o'clock the big pachyderm with great pull tore up about seven feet of flooring to which the rings were attached and started through the animal quarters on course of general devastation.
 The first thing which the maddened elephant came to was a cage of norl- keys which he butted over with his head. Nearby the white donkeys and the zebras were tethered, and the sec tion of flooring dragging behind the, elephant set them loose Then direct ly in his path was an alligator pool, which was constructed of rocks and raised above the floor This the ele- phant partly demolished with his trunk. From here he made his way into the barroorn, smashing big plate. glass mirror, finally making his way to the arena, where he tore up about thirty feet of brass railing and den1ol- ished a number of chairs.
 Meanwhile the other animals went crazy. and their howls and cries brought hundreds of persons to the, building among them Frank Bostock, Captain Bonavita, George Brown, the elephant trainer and others Of the Bostock staff including Henry San ders, Peter Harlow and John Thomp kins. Brown, running up caught the elephant by the ear with his elephant hook. but Tommy, swinging on him with his trunk. knocked him twenty feet away. where he fell unconscious.
 The big brute next struck Sanders. putting him out of the fight, and Bos- took ordered his men to get pftchforks
 With these long handled weapons the animal was forced back to his quarters. but instead of stopping, he trotted right through the sliding doors in the rear of the building and got out into the back lot. Here he was las- soed and double chains were passed around his legs, rendering him help less. l
 Finally he was subdued sufficiently to be led back to his quarters, where his legs were swathed in chains.
 Meanwhile an ambulance in charge of Surgeon Roberts had arrived and the two injured men were taken to the hospital Brown is not expected to live. fN t
 MT Bostock bought Tommy abroad for $4OO and when the elephant ar rived here a duty of more than half was imposed. MT Bostock refused to take the animal at such duty and so the appraiser requested Bostock to keep the animal until the matter should be adjusted.
 The appraisers, after investigation, fixed the value of the elephant last Saturday at $7oO and the duty at about $450. Mir Bostock had tried to make them see that $25o or something like that, was much nearer the proper val- ue. He had declared that Tommy was intractable. The show folk were pointing to-day to Tommy's rampage as complete vindication of MT Bo- stocks judgment.
 MT Bostock said to-day that he would charge the government for the damages caused by Tommy.
 "A few days ago." he said, T sent a bill for S490, which included the feeding and lodging of Tommy for thirty days at $10 a day. Then there was a charge for the service of vet erinary amounting to S66, claims which settled for wearing apparel