Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1906-07-28
ELEPHANT lNTeLLIoENcE.
Wherein the Fable Brand Differs from
the Real Life Variety.

"HcFehn tine aple Brand DINERS froua
the Real Life Variety.
The elephant is always credited with
something next to omnlscience. be IL
the genius OF the animal tribe. He has
that prodigious presence which is said
to be a part of genius. He cannot sleep
at night IL the logs he has been set to
pile that day have not been laid till the
plumb line would show not log piled
the fraction Of al 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.
But In reality the elephant Is a stu.
pid beast. 1t Is hard to teach him. He
learns logarithms with the greatest
difficulty, and counterpoint he could
probably never master. He can pick
up a 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 ngllshmen undertook not long
ago to prepare a jungle born specl-
men for the circus. After awhile they
got him to wave a flag. But the stu
pid beast had no sense of time, and.
being left alone for a day and a night,
be 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 elephant Is to step deftly over
the PROSTATE body of a man, but 1t Ia
the hardest trick to teach the man.
Some elephants have even been edu-
Gated to step over a row of babies
without loss of life. The babies learn
this as easily as the elephant. In fact.
the chief interest in beholding this sub
lime spectacle is In watching the meek
astonishment 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 1t a beautiful feature in its au-
tomato working. 1t 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 a tub Is one of the most
difficult of all. The elephant is as
choice a. a political candidate where
he stands. Man will sometimes stand
on ceremony, but the elephant must
always have solid footing. And his
browning piece of stupidity Ia that he
will permit himself to be put to the
bother of going through all these silly
performances OF the circus by nothing
but a mere puny man.
Be his head what 1t 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 n OF It's 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 a talisman to quiet some OBJ
streperous humor. When the circus had
4 ANY JOuilCy " ndhe IL WIS HI lu~
~dispensable precaution that the baby
be shown to this elephant. Only when
he had seen 1t and had been with 1t
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 1t for
a time, but his keepers knew what to
expect. lie brooded owe 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 II day by kicking the circus to
pieces.-Boston Transcript.