The evening world., 1909-03-30

ldHllIy or lOTlE.
He is poor man. too; an employee Of
RInglinss' Circus, and is known to his
intimates up at the Garden as Doc"
kealey.
This largest family in New York was
by no means an easy one to bring up
Tor thlrty.eigA. OF its forty members
are girls, and. OF course. girls are pro-
verbally expensive to rear. A special
dressmaker is employed all the year
round Just to keep the gigantic family
we'll dressed.
Two costumes apiece Is the allowance
for each member, but the clothes make
up In costliness what they lack in mum.
bers, ranging In price from $500 TO 1850
apiece. Seven hundred dollars a week
is conservative estimate OF the food
bills for the family.
Have School Of Their own.
II has a school OF its own, with spe-
| cial tutors. The school Is. OF course,
graded, beginning with a kindergarten
class, and ending with the bestowal of
a high school diploma. The most re-
markable thing about the family. how
ever. Is that, although all forty mem
bers are generally housed under the
same roof, they have never been known
to be oil aslep at the same time durlrS
any night of their existence.
But why prolong the suspense?
The largest family In New York con.
ssts Of the forty trained elephants up
at the circus that roll kegs, talk through
the telephone or fire cannon. and Doc
Kelley has been their keeper and best
friend for thirteen years. Mr., Kealey
stood before the long, leathery limo OF
his protegees to-day, where four men
keep constant watch lest anything hap
pen to startle the herd and send ton
on ton Of destruction plunging through
the tents OF the merry. And there he
dscoursed to me leisurely OF the
thoughts and feelings and customs Of
elephants in general and his own family
in particular.
We have TO keep the men on watch
constantly to forestall any possibility OF
a stampede ne explained Elephants
are very sensitive. Even at night they
won't all so to sleep at the same time.
May be at some hour OF the night only
one will be left standing. He Is senti-
mel. and at the slightest suspicious noise
he will trumpet. and they will scramble
to their feet, all talking at once. Ger
tainly they talk to each other. Any
body that's ever been with elephants
knows that Some times l think they
even tell funny stories.
Twenty Are "Understudles."
"Only twenty OF the forty elephants
appear in the circus. The rest are UNI
derstudies. and replace the principals
when they are sick. Thirty-eght OF the |
forty elephants are females. The other |
two are John l.. Sullivan and Badly |
We have only one baby elephant at tho |
present time. We call her Baby Boo.
She Is named after the circus home, |
Baraboo, Wisconsin, ana she's out there
now.
alice, over there. has had two babies.
But she wouldn't have anything to do |
with the first one. and we had to bring |
II UP on the bottle. II died after thir- |
teen months. The other one she killed
few days after II was born.
you know we have regular school
for the elephants out In Baraboo. |
There's no way Of telling an elephants
age when you get him. was In the
elephant importing business before /
Joined Ringing Brothers, so I know.
But the right time to begin training him
Is when he Is 1 feet high, For the first
two years all we do Is to accustom him
to his surroundings. He is not allowed
In the procession except chained to an.
other elephant. That's the kindergarten
course.
I'm the next grade we teach them the
easy tricks. like standing on bucket
or rolling barrel. After that they
learn to telephone ana to dance with
their hind feet. It's easy for an ele.
plant TO dance with his front feet
Wilhelmine, our star elephant, can stand
on two feet and raise up eight feet in
the air.
II treat elephants just as II they were
children. punish them when they are
bad, and give them Jumps OF sugar when
they're good. There are twenty-five men
employed here just to care for them
And they have q special dressmaker.
Their rainy-day clothes cost about
5000 apiece, and their best coats, say.
$500 They are very vain OF them, and
they are Jealous. too. II one gets pea
nut the others have to have one. But
on the whole, l guess they're pretty
good children.