The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1920-03-04

Indian elephant, while Jumbo was ar
African. Samson later was with Bar
mum & Bailey. The incident took
place in Haley, Idaho. Mr.. Conklin
writes:
Jack Shoemaker was Samson's driv-
er and l always had Jack follow in the
parade directly behind the cage Of
lions in which l rode so might keep
an eye on the elephant and tell Jack
what to do if anything happened, or
even get out and help him if it was
necessary.
The parade had reached the show
grounds and was breaking up. The
other cages of animals had been driv-
en- under the canvas ahead of mine,
but the horses had not been taken
away. My cage had no more than
stopped and l jumped out than Sam
son reached under it and threw it over
on it's side. Jack tried to get him
away, but I saw at once that he had
lost control Of him. Samson turned
from the cage to the horses and knock
ed over four of them. To save the
horses l seized pitchfork and began
jabbing the elephant in the hind legs.
He Immediately turned on me and to
save myself l lodged behind cage,
He threw this into the air with no ap-
parent effort and l realized that he
must be got outside at once or he
would wreck the whole menagerie.
l shouted to Cole, the owner of the
show, who was trying to help, to get
me my horse and gun. He was only
few moments doing it, but in the
meantime Samson had thrown over
twelve cages trying to get me.
jumped on the broncho and started out
of the door and the elephant followed
me, just as I wanted him to do.
A few rods from the tent was a
blacksmith shop and standing in front
of it, waiting to be repaired, was one
of the huge gondola wagons used in
that section to haul ore in. Samson
stopped long enough to give this a
shove, which sent one end of it
crashing through the side. of the shop,
and then he turned and followed me.
/ headed for the open fields and as
soon as l got away from the horses
and crowd l turned in my saddle and
opened fire on him with charges of
buckshot. It hit him square in the
trunk five or six times, but he paid
no more attention to it than he would
to so many raindrops. Two or three
cowboys came following on and fired
at him with their rifles, but all they
succeeded in doing was to make a
slight flesh wound in his back
l have often laughed when l have |
though of the spectacle we must have
made l was dressed in a suit Of |
tights covered with shining spangles,
had a great leopard skin round my
waist and hips and was mounted on a
broncho with a Mexican saddle and
bride deliberately ornamented. The
elephant had on all his parade trap
pings and great saddle and as he
ran the colored velvet blanket blew
out from both sides like huge wings
The broncho was going his best, but
the elephant was close behind and l
knew that he would be able to over
take US if we kept the race up much
of distance. When l found that he
paid no attention to the buckshot l
began to look around for some means
of cornering him. Off across the
field, something less than a mile
away, was the freight yard, and the
of stopping him among the
cars suggested itself to me and
headed for them. By the side of the
yard was large water tank on top
of which were number of people who
had been watching the parade AS
soon as they saw Samson and me turn
and come toward them they climbed {