The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-24
FILLS ELEPHANTS TOOTH.
Hippodrome's Trick Mammal Chases
Dentist to Perch.

New York, Aug. 24.-Lena, the
trick elephant at the hippodrome. had
d tooth filed today. In the process
she added to her store of knowledge
some emphatic opinions of dentists
and their ways.
Lena had been suffering ever since
the close of the winter season. But the
cause of the trouble was not known
until a few days ago. Then it was
learned that Lena had cavity in one
of the teeth of the upper jaw.
1t was a mere trif1e-only about an
inch and half in diameter.
Martin J. Potter, veterinary sur
geon, was called in. With him was
pound of chloroform, as much choral,
and a lot of tools. 1t appeared as if
he had taken a paving contract
When the preparations for the ope-
ration We're finished, Bob Tyler, Lena's
trainer, coaxed her to lie down. While
he kept her quiet, men with ropes
made her feet fast to rings in the floor.
The doctor pried open her jaws and
began to wash out the cavity of the
tooth. An unlucky scrape hit the
nerve and Lena started to get up. She
had been tied with two inch rope,
but that didn't seem to bother her.
She got UP.
Lena ''Takes the Stage
Lena charged around the stage while
the doctor sought safety. Then Tyler
persuaded Lena to lie down again, and
this time the doctor, for obvious rea-
sons, decided to try chloroform. After
the chIoroform had been replenished
several times, Lena became quiet and
the doctor finished cleaning the cavity
and shaping it to hold the filling. Then
he rammed in the gold and began to
hammer it home with an instrument
that resembled miniature pile driver
About the second knock Lena woke
up and began to SAY things" But
the doctor stuck to his job and finished
it just as Lena demolished the last rope
and struggled to her feet.
It's all finished except the burnish-
ing" the doctor said, but I think I'll
come back tomorrow for that
Chorus Girls Rush to Protect Pet.
Word had gone around that Lena was
to be operated on and would have to
take chloroform. Several chorus girls of
the company hurried in to protect their
pet Rita Dean, one of the riders, be-
came anxious about her mammalian
friend when the doctor confided to her
that elephants seldom recover from the
effects of chloroform.
Rita wept a little bit herself, but
the tears did not in the least resemble
in size those shed by Lena. How
sincere they may have been is another
story. Potter admitted frankly that
chloroform was dangerous for larger
animals, and that some $1,000 ele-
plant was likely to lose value as a re-
"It's all the fault of them girls any
way growled the keeper. 'They
keep feeding candy to Lena all the
time, and that's what has ruined her
teeth. 1t is a pity they wouldn't eat
lit hemselves-chorus girls is easier to
get, a whole lot, than trick ele-
plant"
Lena was much relieved by the ope-
ration and rubbed her trunk CRATE
fully against her keepers arm, as if
she believed him responsible for the
whole thing. The chorus girls seemed
relieved, too, and their spirits are moi
at all affected by the large new
placard that stared them in the face
as they went out
Women of the chorus must not
feed candy to the elephants"
The Igorrottes are at vinewned parl
this pVeek.