AN ELEPHANT’S REVENGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1928, Page 7

AN ELEPHANT’S REVENGE.

HATRED OF TRAINEE

Some interesting facts concerning elephants are given by an animal trainer, in an article in Tits-Bits. He says:

Elephants are the most inteilgont of all animals. J realise this opens an argument, for every man who has worked in a circus menagerie may 'think otherwise. Some devour the chimpanzee. Other trainers choose the dog. My contention .is that elephants show more intelligence in learning to work. In ‘2O minutes you can teach an elephant to plough a cornfield and not to step on a single shoot. He knows how to exert a heavy pull—a rare ability and that pulling may Ire gentle or powerful, just as the trainer wishes.

I have in mind the Indian elephant. Mis brother from Africa is fast becoming extinct. The latter stands higher, has bigger ears, is more spindling, and his teeth and trunk arc different. Moreover, lie is said to have only one brain lobe, while the Asiatic pachyderm has two.

The female elephant is the most intelligent of all animal mothers. She never tires of looking after her black, pudgy, mischevious baby. Twice a- day she sprays it, filling her trunk to its two-gallon capacity and making the bath a thorough, solemn affair.

The big beast’s intellect shines brightest in vaudeville work. He is the only animal that is capable of going through his stunts without a trainer and without cues. The three-ton star will stand at the back of the stage waiting for his act. for an hour and ahalf, placid, thinking his elephant thoughts, while property men shift scenery right under his trunk and chorus girls go .scuttling round him. Von can lead his between the most fragile sets of the stage gauze and he wont hurt a thing. ADA I'TABILITY OF ELEPHANTS. In considering the elephants’ brains I divide them into two classes. Tn general, the formula is, square head and high forehead, intelligent; round head and low forehead, had. 'the adaptability of an intelligent elephant was shown in the case of Alice. She was employed as lady performer and maid-of-all-work in a small onering circus. One of her duties was to load the waggons on the trains. The .runs up which the circus wagons were pushed to the flat cars were about 12 inches wide. One end rested on the floor of the ear and the other on the ground.

Alice never needed any instructions. A workman would grasp the tongue to do the guiding and Alice would get behind and push.

One night the trainer, slightly ilt, sat down some distance away. Alice started a particularly heavy wagon up the incline. The wheels, however, were just on the edge of the runs when Alice hacked away. Suddenly a workman shouted “Look out?” The great wagon had started down the incline. Now Alice had never been taught what to do in such an emergency. But she stepped forward to meet the wagon, braced herself, and caught the heavy impact on her head and trunk. By tremendous exertion, she pushed the wagon hack up the runs till both front and hack wheels were on the floor of the flat car.

A BAD ELEPHANT’S CUNNING PLANS.

If a had elephant has decided to kill a man, it is uncanny the way ho goes about it. laying his plans as carefully as a man would draw up a prospectus. Tt is his habit to visualise to the last detail some situation in which lie will have you at his mercy—and then wait until just that circumstance appears. Until it does, that would-be man-killer may he a model of industry. This wicked animal may go through his tricks like a lamb. And all the time, in that narrow rounded head, there will he fixed determination to trample his victim, or drown him, or wait till he catches him in a corner where he can crush him against the walls. Some years ago an experiment was made with a male called Jim, to learn what he would do when his chance to kill came. .Tim was unusually hostile to his trainer, but when they were near a sheet of water all the l>oast’s enmity apparently went out of him. “How Jimmy likes water!” people would say. He would make tracks for a river or a lake as soon as he saw it—provided the man went with him.

EXPERIMENT WITH A DUMMY,

At last the trainer decided that he could not make a good elephant out of a had one. He happened to mention the animal’s queer habit to a visiting elephant man. “Don’t go near him!” the visitor warned. “That brute is only trying to sot a trap for you.” The trainer made an experiment. TTe made a dummy of himself, and dressed it in a suit of his old clothes, so it would smell like him. Then an assistant blinded Jim’s left eyo. Walking on the blind side he led ihe beast to the river. Fixing the dummy in position a few inches ahead of the blinded eye, lie cautiously stepped back and with the aid of a pole whipped ofF the bandage. Jim made a lightening grab, wrapped his trunk' round the dummy, and walked slowly into deep water. There he lowered his great head and pushed the dummy to the bottom. Then, trumpeting shrilly, he trampled it into flie mud.

Next day Jim was led under a derrick, a noose was slipped around his neck and he was hanged.

DIED OF BROKEN HEART.

In their emotions elephants sometimes startle one. Consider Victor and Helen, vaudeville performers. These two were doing their act in a theatre when Victor had a- sudden attack of acute paralysis. Don Darragh the trainer saw him stagger. But Victor had grit enough to carry on. Darragh got the pair to their stable where Victor died. It took 12 hours to complete arrangements for the corpse to be carted away. Ail that time Helen stood over Victor refusing to budge. Finally Darragh put double chains on her. She refused food and water and gave on response when spoken to or touched. Tn 34 days she was dead. She died of a broken heart.