Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-01-10
ELEPHANT lNTELLl ErcE.

ELEPHANT INTELLIGENCE.
Whsrein che Fable RraAA DiResa
Erom me Real Life variety.
The elephant IL always credited with
something next to omniscience. He On
the genius Of the animal tribe. He has
that prodigious patience which Is said
to be a part Of genius. He cannot sleep
at night II the logs he has been set to
pile that day have not been laid till the
plumb line would show not a log piled
the fraction Of an inch out of line. He
gets up in the middle Of the night and
jots down ideas and new designs for
piling logs. All this in the fable.
J But In reality the elephant ii stu
pid beast. It Is hard to teach him. He
learns logarithms with the greatest
difficulty, and counterpoint he could
probably never master. He can pick
up forty ton bowlder, but he cannot
pick up an idea. Some few tricks he
does acquire, but he Is like some chill
dren- he learns hard and forgets hard
Some Englishmen undertook not long
ago to prepare a jungle born specimen
for the circus. After awhile they got
him to wave q flag. But the stupid
beast had no sense of time, and, being
left alone for day and a night, he
was found still waving the flag when
his keepers returned He had no more
sense OF time than a blind man. One
OF the easiest tricks to: teach an ele-
plant Is to step deftly over the pros
trate body Of a man, but it is the hard
est trick to teach the man. AL.
Some elephants have even been edu-
Gated to step over q row Of babies
without loss of life. The babies learn
this as easily ais the elephant. In fact,
the chief interest In beholding this
sublime spectacle is in watching the
meek establishment Of the babies as
they look up and observe those great
tree trunks Of elephant legs slowly de-
scending over their heads and landing
safely at their side. The process has
about it beautiful feature In ITS dlu-
tomato working. It is the babes fas-
cination in watching the elephants
ponderous legs that keeps him still and
out Of harms way.
But to teach an elephant the COM
mon circus trick Of focusing his four
big feet on d tub is one Of the most
difficult Of all. The elephant is as
choice as political candidate where
he stands. Man will sometimes stand
on ceremony, but the elephant must al
ways have solid footing. And his
browning piece Of stupidity Is that he
viii permit himself to be put to the
bother OF going through all these silly
performances Of the circus by nothing
but mere puny man.
Be his head what it will, the ele-
plants heart is Of different stuff.
There is the story Of the elephant in
the. circus that fell in love with the
baby girl Of one OF Its keepers. He
would not perform, he would not eat
unless the babe were right beside him.
Often the child had to be brought, into
the elephants stall and be showed to
him like talisman to quiet some OBJ
streperous humor. When the circus
had any journey to make 1t was an
indispensable precaution that the baby
be shown to this elephant. Only when
he had seen 1t and had been with it
awhile and felt. assured that it was
not to be left behind would he walk
into his car and be shipped on his way.
1t was touching In the extreme.
But the baby died, and trouble was
in store. The elephant endured It for
q time, but his keepers knew what to
expect. He brooded over his loss; he
eyed his keepers and the world with
suspicion; he felt himself tricked and
neglected. He had to be guarded from
the public. They ceased to have him
on show. Finally he refused any lon
ger to run through his tricks, and he
ended one day by kicking the circus to
pieces. Boston Transcript