Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03
TEACHING ELEPHANTS.
The Tall, Fat Legged, Small Eyed Kind the Best Pupils.

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 the Best Pupils.
 On number of points all elephant
 trainers agree, says Appleton's Mag
 zine. These are, first. that the tall
 fat legged, small eyed elephant of biz
 girth is not only the handsomest, but
 also the most docile and intelligent oi
 his kind; second, that an elephant is
 fully aware of his prodigious strengtli
 compared with mans and that the req.
 son an elephant obeys his master is
 net because he is afraid of him, but
 because he has an affection for him;
 third, you may beat bad elephant
 to death or kill him by ramming red hot irons down his throat in an effort to press the "squeal of surrender" out of him, but the one and only way to train an elephant to perform tricks is through kindness and patience unend- ing; last. but not least. without ex- ception the intelligence of the elephant far exceeds that of any other animal.
 Elephant trainers maintain that train- ing an elephant to perform is like teaching boy circus riding, only less difficult.
 A number of the simpler tricks with which an elephant entertains his au- dience come as natural to him as the tapping of milk comes to cat-for instance, the blowing of the. mouth harmonica. t~...-r
 Twenty feet to the right or to the left of the candidate to be taught to lie down four heavy stakes are driven into the ground, and from each of these runs block and tackle con- meeting with each leg and manned by ten or dozen men. When all is ready the trainer stands in front of the animal, raises his hook and "DownJ Down!'' he orders. The elephant pays no attention. He stands waving his trunk and swaying his body from side to side. Down! Downv' shouts the trainer again, and upon a signal some forty men begin to heave and tug, the blocks squeak, the ropes creak, and while'the trainer continues shouting his command the pachy- derm's legs begin to be drawn from under him. With a scalp raising trum- pet. the startled creature begins to struggle, flashing with his trunk from side to side and groping with its tip against the floor, frantically seeking for hold to steady himself, but the relentless ropes continue to draw his legs. The huge beast leans at a for bidding angle. believing like a herd of steers and drowning the Down! Down." of the trainer. The great body begins to totter. For an instant it re- gains its balance; then it falls, crash ing with dull thud on to the bed of straw. Trumpeting like the screech put of cracked steam calliope, the brute tries vainly to struggle to his feet, until at the end of three or four minutes he begins to realize that noth. ng so very startling has happened and hat really he ought to feel very con- 'ortable indeed.
 To teach him to stand on his head 1 he trainer again uses the block and ackle. To forestall the effects of a 'ad fall the floor of the training stable s thickly filtered with straw. Then he candidate is harnessed with chains md the bellyband and block and tackle IS he was when learning to rear, the difference being that the chains from lnder the belly lead between the hind Instead of between the forelegs, so hat the hindquarters instead of the orequarters may be raised.