The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-20
LOGGED ELEPHANT tanned
BANTAM FR0M CONEY DRIVES
DEVIL aUT or ALICE.
Size Hrokc Out OF the Reptile House Mt
the Zaa, Splitting Snakes on Her Way
~Chlorni Made Her slice? ard When
h Awoke rhcrc Was Dick Richards.

The YGa, Spllling snakes on Her way
~Chlorni Made Her slice? ard When
She AwoKc There was Dick Richards.
Dick Richards gets $26 a month and
found for his services as an elephant
keeper at Coney Island, This Dick
Richards, the twenty five dollar man..
vent out to the Bronx Too yesterday
afternoon to the place where the big
elephant Luna, known as Alice at lama
pnrk, lay chained like the Mauretania
ut her dock because OF her twenty -four
hours rampage. and after cuddling'
her like n naughty child he led her re-
pentant and croning her love for him up
10 tho antelope house where she belonged.
While some Of those who followed the
naughty elephant still kept their hands
on revolvers hidden in their coat pockets
Dick Richards rode on her head and
once in a while he slipped his foot in her
mouth and let her humble 1t just to show
that all was right between them.
This after Luna had broken from her
new keepers, held the reptile house in
siege all of Friday night and then wrecked
portions of the building and numbered out
INTO the park yesterday morning filed
with a strong d esire TO get away from
every body, even though somebody should
be hurt while she was doing II. Maybe
this Richards from Coney Island knew
better than all the elephant keepers OF
the Bronx Zoo just what may. be expected
of a lady elephant when she 10 lonely and
peevish and given over to nerves.
The old Alice of Luna Park. who used
to carry children on her back and who
would hunt in the pockets Of frocks and
jumpers for peanuts out there on the
boardwalk where the crowds were, took
fright at the screams of the pumas In the
Bronx Zoo on Friday night and rushed
for the reptile house in the unreasoning
panic Of ~femininity, as told in The Sun
Of yesterday. There she remained.
night, waving her head from side to side
and giving short snorts Of fright at the
noise of the cravings and ther aspings OF
the creeping things all about her. There
beside her Director Hornaday and several
Of his elephant keepers camped the whole
A little after 8 O'Clock yesterday morn
ing Walter Truman and Edward Bey-
Teuther, two handlers at the Zoo, de-
cided that Luna had grown calm after
her night Of fright: They .loosened
the chains that bound her to the stanch-
reptile house and back to the antelope
paddock where she had been installed
But no sooner had Walt and Ed loosened
the chains than Luna fell once more a prey
TO her nerves. She .pirouetted about
in a shriil treble and then started FOR the
door. Had the turtles been possessed
of back hair it would have risen stimuli
taneously with that OF Walt and Ed
and whisper it-Director hornaday. A
scared elephant in a house filled with
poisonous snakes and ~alligators L. no
teddy bear, Walt and Ed and the others
said later.
Luna was in the southerly corridor OF
the reptile house when she began to cut
up. Behind her was the big pool where
the turtles are-the turtle walk, they
call it.. In front was the doorway that
and entrance. There Is about five feet
Of space between the turtle walk n the
entrance to the outer room, which was not
enough for Luna. h tore away with her
trunk a section OF brass railing in front
OF some Of the glass cases on the southern
side of the main room, Numbered out
through h doorway. and in passing
tipped over two OF the cases.
Now II happened that these cases con.
tanned some %rattlers. some. adders and
and frisky little devils from Mexico or
thereabouts. They all went on the floor
out of the broken cases and those who
were pursuing Luna stepped high In
passing. Some Of the men about the
reptile house hurried for bags On the end
Oh pOlGS anu OJleT PAL dpltIudidd ilu dley
oorralled those rattlers and adders. 1t
was fortunate of course dat they weren't
the king cobras or the constructors and
that they didn't get out into the grass
ever as 1t was.
Once outside her temporary prison
leads to the bear pits. two Of the elephant
handlers dangling from goads that they
had fastened in her ears and others
playing a losing game at tug OF war on
the chains about her feet. She bounced
down the path. bleating like a giant
sheep, swerved of the gravel at about
100 yards from the east wing Of the reptile
house and started for the trees.
When about twenty feet OIL the path
Luna paused to TAX in her surroundings.
That pause was fatal to her liberty. Walt
Truman and Johnny Quinn took q turn
tree, another one Of the pursuers snagged
one Of her ~forefeet with an iron cable and
had that about another troe in c .'fty.
Luna, realizing that something was the
matter behind, took it out on Tho tree.
She lowered her head. caught the six
inch diameter of the tree between he eyes
and pushed until the roots began to give
way and the top branched were brushing
tho ground. Then her hen! slipped. shs
plunged forward md lay prone. Pres
emily che waS bound down like Gullirer
IN Lilliput. wHn chains. hemp cables and
heavy electric light wire.
Maybe 1t Is not fair to intimate that
Director Hornaday and his men with a
raging elephant dashed between three
trees were nonplussed. Call it puzzled.
They sent for DR.. W. Reed Blair, the park
physician. He came, poured into a
bucket full Of water enou gh choral 70
keep a Bowery expert in business for q
year and offered Luna a drink. But
Luna was from Coney Island. She sucked
up the bucketful, then turned her trunk
and sprayed every one within q ten foot
radius. After that the doctor had to
inject the choral, four ounces OF 1t, under
-Uuna's hide, and she went out.
Mr.. Hornaday began TO work the tele-
phone between Bronx Park n Coney
Island. He wanted Diok Richards, the
man who had been Luna's keeper for the
three years at Luna.
When una came out OF 1t at noon
she was far from being q well elephant.
Trioed out so that she could hardly move
her head and swing her trunk, with CALLING
chains about her feet and such a head
ache, the Coney Island bad girl vented
her temper vociferously. She trumpeted
with short, foolish shorts, strained at
her bonds and rolled her eyes. Nobody
wanted TO bet that those trees would
hold.
Then about 8 o'clock came that Rich
ards from Coney Island He came
ambling up the path with his elephant
whip uD in q piece OF