Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-20
liant WISDOM
I
Is the Sagacity of the Big'
Beast a Myth?
WHAT FACTS INDICATE
HUGE ANIMAL IS NOT POSSESSED
OF UNUSUAL INTELLIGENCE.
However, He is Cunning, if Not Bril-
liant, and He is More Dangerous
Than Most People Think.
Written for The Star.

Since the days or Rome. Wnen the great
earth-shaking beast first began to play
not unimportant part in the history of the
civilized world legends have been woven
around the elephant to prove that he is
beast of wonderful sagacity.
Until the very recent years of modernized
natural history, no book on zoology failed
to refer to the marvellous sagacity of the
big pig No self-respecting animal book of
our childhood could afford to go to press
without the good old story of the elephant
who, having had prank played on him.
punished the perpetrator many years after
ward.
But is he so intelligent?
For fifteen years the writer has had a
fad for studying elephants-other peoples
elephants. He has spent days with the
noted trainers while they broke new ele-
plants to old tricks and old elephants to
new ones. He has sat under the restless
trunks of unframed and trained herds while
the keepers told tales of mingled fact and
fancy. He has ridden elephants and eaten
them-at least piece of one. He has seen
them plough and has seen them eXtricating
heavy circus wagons out of the mud. he
has seen them ''go bad and has seen them
executed
1t all has led him to the conclusion that
the big brute is not possessed of the in
telligence with which the species is credit
ed. Some few have shown more than 9TH
ers, but as a species the elephant appears
to be of the ordinary grade of animal in
telligence and no more.
Cunning and Dangerous.
What the elephant does possess without
doubt is high degree of cunning. 1t is
this that helps him do feats that seem to
require a certain amount of brains, as
brains" are understood by human beings
But this same attribute makes the elephant
one of the most dangerous of beasts.
That is another thing that most people
even students of the natural history of ami
mails in captivity, do not know. The very
fact that creature so vast is amenable at
all to discipline and goes round, goes
round so docilely in the circus and the
menagerie carries observers away and
gives them an exaggerated sense of the
tractability of the mighty brute.
But elephant trainers and elephant owners
know better. Many of them have died to
prove it.
Elephant men are afraid of their charges;
noJ with the fear that makes them weaken
before the beast but with the sensible fear
that man must have of great dynamo
when it purrs itself full of lightning death
in its devl-whirl.
do you consider the elephant an intell-
gent animal?'' 1 asked Mr.. James A Bailey,
who, it will be admitted, ought to know
something of elephants
mo, SIR said he emphatically. Not at
ali. You can never tell whether or not ele
plants Will do what you want them to do.
They are dangerous but not intelligent"
The elephants mental processes are as
ponderous his physical ones. You can't
hurry an elephant; and when he appears in
public and takes his own time before he
does anything, it conveys an idea of de-
liberate thought just as a slow, fat man
often makes folk think that he is wise
merely because he is so slow.
There isn't trace of intelligence in the
face of the giant. if he can be said to have
a face at all. What passes for face is
the most expressionless of all animal faces
The pig-like eyes are furtive, watchful, sin
they tell the truth. The elephants temper
Is very much like that of his humble rela-
tive, the pig.
When he is angry or frightened, he
squealS like a magn1fed porker. That
sGueal is the epitome of foolish fear or rage
After 1t has been heard, it is impossible to
feel the proper reverence for the terrifying
trumpet which is another of the elephants
voices. He has a third voice, too, which
generally expresses fright as the squeal
does. 1t is a combination of the pig-grunt
and roar, very funny.
Treacherous as a Snake.
One day l watched Newman teaching one
of his old, educated elephants to stand over
him while he lay PROSTATE. The trick that
he was trying to knock into the monster
was to hold the huge forefoot just above his
face as If about to crush the life out of
him.
You must have a lot of faith in the
loyalty of that beast to take such a
chance" said /.
Loyalty?' said Newman with a laugh
say ne AFRAID OF me, and he knows that
he must do as / say. Now I'll tell you
what. Those brutes don't give darn about
me Some day one of 'em will kill me- |
shouldn't wonder. They're just plumb full
of cunning and treacherous as a snake
and any old time one of EN- may feel nasty
Oh hat II 4
Newman and that'll be ALL
But Newman escaped the perils of pig
mountain and is living far from all dam
gers of elephants in an old soldiers home
Lockhart the greatest of old time eIe-
pEant trainers, made the same prophecy
ABOUT himself some years ago. You can't
figure on elephants at ALL" said he They
are the most uncertain of all beasts
Lockhart didn't escape. One of his eIe-
plants killed him, but 1t didn't come the
way that he expected, for 1t came as an ac-
cident. In unloading a herd in London one
OF them slipped and fell on him.
Trained Like Other Animals.
In training the circus elephant for the
ring, the appeal is almost entirely to his
memory and sense of obedience, exactly as
1t is with all other trained animals. No
tiger, lion, bear or horse ever originated a
trick or even improved on one knowingly.
Neither did elephant
laborious, month-long reiteration, and some
times with club and goad. 1t is the same
way with work. And once they have
learned it, they will refuse to do it any
other way.
That is why spectators watching eIe-
phants help to load or unload show often
marvel at the wisdom of the brutes They
will refuse to touch the car or wagon till
1t is just so. They won't press their heads
against the load until the men have adj
1usted the tenders at exactly the right spot
1t looks like calculating reason; but it is
only the refusal of the animal to do his
work in any way except the way that has
been drilled into him.
His obstinacy, which is very pig-like,
comes into play and makes him letter-per-
feet in his tricks even while it makes him
hard to manage in new ways.
Hitch an elephant to harness which is so
arranged that he has to pull and he will
act like wild mustang He will snort,
squeal, grunt; he will sidestep tangle him
self in the ropes, twist the harness around
himself. AT last if he is pressed too hard
he may even begin to throw dust into the
air, danger signal telling that he is get
ting mad
Now where is his intelligence? His
H. L. r..