A MURDEROUS ELEPHANT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2210, 7 September 1886, Page 3

A MURDEROUS ELEPHANT.

The Pioneer of India reports a horrible occurrence which recently took place in the district of Sultanpore, in Oude, where an elephant broke loose, and tinned to murder. It appears that the elephant was ridden by Baren, its driver, who gave the animal a prod with a spear in order to prevent him snatching a bundle of straw from a threshing floor. The elephant immediately resented this by pulling the driver off his back, and as the man fell he lowered his head and tried to strike him, but the man managed to pass under him through his front legs. The animal however, seized him by the arm, and threw him violently away. The man fell into a hollow, which concealed him from the brute's view, and and not finding him he went away, after breaking the spear in several pieces. He then went to the village of Sadarpuv, where he caught sight of an old man, who ran into his house and concealed himself in a kothi. or receptacle for grain. Pie broke down the walls of the house and entered it, pulled the man out of the kothi, and bringing him out of the house, savagely killed him, breaking one of his arms and dashing his head to pieces. The same night he knocked down several houses in quest of human beings in tho villages of Sadarpur, Baiganon, and Jaisingpur. He killed siv men in Bersotna, three in Sota, four in Gangeo, and four in Mardan. He likewise killed a bullock and a pony, and also completely destroyed a new carriage belonging to Dorah Khan of Uaugeo. The animal used to stand at the door of a house, force his entry by demolishing the walls on either side, and would then kill as many of the inmates as he could, pursuing others who tried to run away. He mangled the corpses to a frightful extent. After securing a victim he sometimes returned to the spot to see if life was extinct, and would commence mutilating the body afresh. He carried peveral bodies to long distances and threw them into ravine*, &c. In his ferocity he tore the clothing off some of the bodies. Several persons managed to escape by climbing trees, under which he stood tearing down the branches. Subsequently the elephant found his way to the Dehra Kaj.ih's place, where he tried to enter the house of a gardener, but some men, mounted on three elephants, assisted by spearmen, drove him off. He then returned to Bebipur, where he tried to bicak down his master's house, in which seveial persons had taken refuge. The police got into the house from a back window, and were obliged to send for help to the Dehra Rajah, who sent three elephants and some spearmen, &c. The animal received two gunshots on the head at Bebipur, which, however, only temporarily drove him off. He wa* ultimately captured, at imminent risk, by the Rajah's three elephants and men. '

RrcENTLY published French statistics show that there are over 2,000.000 bachelors in that country. In other woids, nearly one-fourth of the adult male population of France are bachelors.

Dr W. F. Carver, the well-known rifle shot, says :—"lt is not generally known that an orange hit in the exact centre by a rifle ball will vanish at once from sight. Such, however, is the fact, and that is my way of m iking an orange disappear — shooting it through the centre, which scatters it into such infinitesimal pieces that it is at once lost to sight. Try it yourself, and see if what I say is not so.

The " Stalwarts."—Mr Chamberlain, referring to those politicians who hold strong and fixed opinions and stand by them at the present juncture, remarked the other day :—" W3 cannot spare the stalwarts at the present inomeut, when there are so many people walking about with no opinions to speak of—(cheers and laughter),—who change their principles as ofteu as they change their shirts — (laughter and cheers)—and you may say with the hero of the Biglow papers :—: — Well, Mipiinsing we hud to gulp down our IH-nfe^inns, We w.is re.xriy to go out next ir.orninpr with fre>h uns. Bennies, if we did, it was nnr biz alone ; For can't we do what we like with our own?"

CiiiifcsrcPAßiso.—The World says: — The officers of the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet are being treated shabbily by the Admiralty. It is always an expensive ves3el, much having to be done in the way ot hospitality towards distinguished foreigners and officers of other navies. The expense of entertaining is increased rather than diminished by the. presence of a Royal Duke in command ; but the Whitehall authorities have, almost for the first time, refused to make any special allowance to the flagship officers. This is contemptible economy, throwing, as it does, a demand upon their resources that the nation ought at least to divide with them. An* Ixmyx Estimate of Lord DufFKRlN. —Writing under the vom <b' plume of "A Native Thinker," Sir Madhava Rao thus speaks of Lord Dufferin :— " Many facts and circumstances go to show that tin's nobleman eminently possesses the following qualities :-Wisdom and experience, great business capacity, quick comprehension, sound and ready judgment, great firmness, suavity of manner, abundance of resources in times of emeigency, ready perception and appreciation of merit, a strong desire to do good to the utmost extent possible, great piudence and caution, fearlessness of ies possibility, and indifference to popular displeasure when he is conscious of being tight. He evidently possesses many accomplishments, and also aa inexhaustable stock of words and phrases which are pleasant or conciliatory, but do not inconveniently commit him to anything definite. He bids fair to be a firstclass Viceroy of India. May he be long spared .'"

Waiting for the Verdict. —The scene in the drawing room at Eu when the French Princes, their families and guests, awaited after dinner the telegrams which announced the result of the voting in the Senate, was no dramatic that it might have been taken straight from —or might be put straight mto —a French stage drama. They are all seated, taking coffee ; the door opens ; a servant enters with a telegram, which he hands to the Comte de Paris ; it is read —the first Article of the Expulsion carried by a majority of fifteen votes. A pause, another telegram, the second Article voted. Then each of the exptthh tries to give j utterance to an historic sentiment, with a view to his biographers, so to speak. Some succeed, others do not. The Due (V Aumale, who spoke first, struck the wrong note, " Messieurs,'' said he " not re Iwstoirr n vonnu beaneoup do crimes" The words of the Comte de Paris, "JYomapnrfons Ie surlcndann'w," are much more likely to figure in futme French histories. The scene at TnSport was, perhaps, even more impressive for the spectators. A small steamer, the Victoria [quod Bt, omen avcrtaul!), at her stern the Union Jack, at her mast head the Tricolor. The Comte de Paris mounts to the paddlebox, stands before the flag, and raising his hat, exclaims, " Vive la France !" Then, as M. de Blowitzsays, the fortunes i of a dynasty are committed to the waves. The amiable correspondent himself felt, he tells us, the oppression which he experiences after reading a page of Dante.

Jkalousv. —For some time there hns been a considerable increa&e in the number of crimes in France prompted by jealousy. Two were perpetrated on July 12. At about 10 o'clock at night, in the Commune of Mai-on Alfort, near Paris, a man fiftytwo years of age, named Boissel, cnteied the apartment occupied by Antoinette Bipnet, and with three blows with a cutlass laid her dead at his feet. The murderer did not attempt to escape, but went straight to the Police Commissary and confessed that he had just killed his mistress, becauso she had ownfd to him that she had listened to the seductive Linpufipo of another man. There can be no doubt about the premediti tioii of the crime as Bois?>ol Ix a rowed of a neighbouring grocer the cutlass with which the murder was committed,