Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1891 — After Fifteen Years. [ARTICLE]

After Fifteen Years.

A few miles out of the city of Bankok there is a mineral spring, and near it a bungalow much frequented by the Europeans in the city. An Englisthman says that one evening as he'rode up to this bungatow, a gentleman was alighting from his howdah at the entrance. As soon as he had dismounted, his elephant was moved to one side, and my driver, who was seated on the head of my elephant, ordered it to advance. The instant he spoke, the animal which had moved aside to make room for us flapped his great ears, and then turned sharply around, facing my driver. Suddenly, without the least warning, he stretched out his long trunk and wrapped it about the body of my man. Then, before any one had time to interfere, he. raised him high in the air and brought him to the ground with tremendous force! As the poor fellow struck the earth we could hear his bones crack. But the elephant was not done with him. The next moment he had placed his huge foot on the head and chest of the prostrate driver. When he raised it again, all semblance of life was gone from the crushed, mutilated body. The gentleman whose elephant had committed the terrible deed was greatly distressed. He said that he had purchased the animal from the king’s pen, that it had always been exceedingly gentle and well-disposed. The animal was blind, one eye having been put out by an attendant fifteen years previous. It was my driver, I learned the next day, who had put out the elephant’s eye. He was at the time one of the guards at the king’s stock pen, and, for some misdemeanor committed by the animal, had thrown a stone, which struck the creature full in the eye. The elephant was so enraged thereafter at the sight of him, that, fearing for his life, the man left the place. But the injured animal had bided his time, and after fifteen years of waiting had terribly punished his enemy.