Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1914 — TELLS OF DROWNING ELEPHANTS [ARTICLE]

TELLS OF DROWNING ELEPHANTS

“Did you ever hear the terrorized trumpeting of a herd of drowning elephants?” asked W. J. Williams of Peru, Ind., at the Willard. “If you never heard the piteous cries of dying you have escaped one of the most heartrending experiences that ever comes to civilized man. I was in Pens during the flood of 1913, when the Wabash river rose to unknown heights, causing tremendous destruction of property. Peru is the winter headquarters of the Wallace and -Hagenback circus, and when it was found that the water was coming higher than bad ever been known before, the fourteen elephants in the circus were unchained and let go to take care of themselves. Three of them managed to reach a small mound where they stoo<J. In the water with their trunks elevated till the end of the flood,' but the other eleven were drowned, “With the watar rusbing through the streets, and the people of the city marooned in the second stories of the houses, the elephants swam around for hours, trumpeting in terror and sticking their trunks into the open windows of the houses in their efforts to find some spot of safety. They cried like children and one could almost understand their language as they pleaded for the help which could not be given them, for not one of them coußT’Be taken in through, a

door or window out of the flood They acted more like human beings than beasts, and-it was almost as. pitiful to see them go tw’Wn under the muddy waters, one by one, as it was to see a . human being washed from a roof. “I shall never forget their dying cries as they sought the safety which could ndt be found ip that flat where the whitle surface of* the earth was submerged. ' “Back in the big circus menaferte, however, there was even a more tragic scene. When the water came up into the cages of the anim.l. they all became frantic from feai. “Lions and tigers roared and dashed themselves against the bars of their evges till it was feared they would escape and swfltt to places of human refuge, where they would destroy many lives. hmwm -mmrm 1 a v« jv- 1 a- . . irun oars uy id© D6&BIS In ti)6lF fury and as the water rose higher their terror and their strength increased. When It was'seen that nothing could be done and that lives of per sons in the city were being endangered, the manager Y>f the menagerie went from cage to cage with a rifle and shot one after another of the monarchs of the jungle tin all were dead. It cost the circuq a fortune, but many human lives were saved.” -r— ——!•