Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — ELEPHANTS. [ARTICLE]

ELEPHANTS.

Borne of the Singular Friendships Which They Contract. Elephants are queer and interesting creatures, both in captivity and their native wilds. Tip, the ugly Forepaugb elephant in Central Park, New York, who has the discredit of having killed several of his keepers, is extremely and tenderly fond of little dogs, and with equal fervor he hates birds. Tip’s keeper has a small fox terrier, which is to be found almost any day playing about the feet and trunk of the cruel mammoth as he stands chained short to the sunken post in the yard back of the elephant hodse. The dog is one of tho least of his kind ns Tip is one of the largest of his. The terrier has usually a season of running rapidly around aud around his notorious friend, who watches him with something like a twinkle in his bloodshot eyes. Suddenly the great flexible trunk shoots out and the dog will trip over it, and then goes rolling hbad over heels on the ground, whereupon Tip blows a lot of dust over his own back — probably his way of laughing at the joke, lie never hurts the dog, who generally proceeds to “get even” in his own way. He sneaks up quietly from behind, and when directly between Tip's l'oro feet suddenly gives vent to a succession of shrill barks. Of course elephants have nerves, and Tip gives a start backward, just as anybody would, at which the little scamp leaps to one side, out of reach, and barks tit to kill himself—his way of laughing. Tip Ims an ungovernable desire to crush the life out of every English sparrow in the park. Sometimes a whole flock surround him to pick up the seeds he scatters from iris pile of lmy. Whenever they get. conveniently close he suddenly swings his trunk union" them, blowing with all his might at the same time. stamping with one of his ponderous feet. English sparrows are quick of wing, and they generally get safely out of reach, but occasionally the great trunk strikes cue and knocks the life out. Then, with every appeamneo of gratified rage, tho elephant picks the soft little feathered body up in his trunk and hurls it over his back and out of the enclosure, gjying great horrid grunts of satisfaction, ... Wild elephants sometimes make devoted friends of other animals. A party of hunters in 'Central Africa once wounded a large bull elephant, which traveled scores of miles into the jungle, after receiving the heavy bullet into his shoulder. The chase was abandoned for the time. A fortnight later the hunters came upon the same beast. lie was lying on ids uninjured side near a stream in a dense forest. A buffaki cow was standing over the fallen monarch, gently licking tho blood from the wound. Frequently she would leave him and go to the stream, and by pawing at its edge toss a lot of water upon the rank grass within reach of tho elephant’s trunk. _ It was probably in this way that refreshing moisture had been conveyed to the fevered and sulleriug giant, keeping him ulive. The hunters were divided as to whether the elephant should be put out of his misery. It was flnuilv decided to give him a chance for his life under the nursing of tho cow. Several weeks later, when tho P Br VN were making their way back toward the coast, they came across a lame elephuut attended by a buffalo cow. The pair were not molested. —[St. Louis Republic.