Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1918 — ELEPHANT STEALS FOOD DURING NIGHT [ARTICLE]

ELEPHANT STEALS FOOD DURING NIGHT

SMALLEST OF HERD FEEDS BIG ONE AFTER HIS THEFTS. Cunning of Animal Discovered by Trainer as He Watches Sammy Carefully Free Himself. Baraboo. Wie —The mystery of vanishing elephant food has been solved. And now Sammy, smallest of the elephant herd, la “in bad.” Babylon, the largest of the tribe, also is receiving few kind words during these days, for it is the big fellow who is credited with putting thieving ideas into the little elephant’s trunk. The elephants, which belong to a circus, are housed in a large brick barn. ‘‘Elephants have enormous appetites,” exclaimed George’ Denman, keeper, who discovered Sammy during his nightly raids on the feed. Of course, there is always a great deal of feed around —tons upon tons of hay in the loft overhead and stacks of sacked oats and piles of baled straw in the corners of the barn. “Sammy, though a tiny chap, would, I am sure, eat his weight in oats every day, were he allowed to have bis way. But, though the elephants are well fed, they are not allowed to have all the food that they might like. And now we come to our story. “The lights had been put out for the night and I supposed that every' one of my charges was sound asleep. So 1 was about to leave the bam when I heard a low, rasping sound coming from the opposite side of the big room. Instead of walking straight across the ring, I softly slipped around back of the elephants. Peering from behind a pile of baled straw, I saw Sammy was carefully lifting his chain stake out of the ground with his trunk. "The stake came out so easily that I knew' the little rascal must have had it out before. As I watched, he slipped his foot-chain down over the tapering end of the stake and was free. I was not afrajd that he would do any real mischief, for I realized that he must have been loose many times before. “Across the barn, some twenty feet from where Sammy had been chained, were a number of sacks filled with oats. Picking up his foot-chain very carefully, with his trunk, so it would not rattle or jangle on the floor, he moved slowly and cautiously until he was within reaching distance of the grain. Then he laid down the chain and picked up a sack of oats in his trunk. His journey back to the herd was made even more cautiously, because this time he was obliged to drag the chain and yet have to make no noise. * “At last he reached the elephant line and went up to the giant Babylon, who stood like a great, bronze statue. There Sammy stopped and Babylon, whom I had supposed fast asleep, took the oats. They got into the bag in a twinkling and then the feast began. Sammy filled his mouth and munched away, for he knew that his big companion would get most of the oats if he lost any time. f “As it was, Babylon took almost half the oats at the very start, and poor little Sammy, his mouth so full that he couldn’t speak. “I decided it was time to make a noise, just to see what would happen. So I banged on the floor and then walked to the back of the barn, wondering what I should do to punish the pair. A few days before I had had to use a sharp instrument on one of Babylon’s teeth, and he hadn’t liked that one bit Tins gave me an idea. “I went to my own room, got out the instrument and went back. There was Sammy in his usual place at the stake, pretended to be fast asleep. I didn t do anything to Sammy, but went over to Babylon. “He was playing possum too. I had a good deal of trouble in wakening him. To punish Babylon, I ordered him. to sit down and opepjiis-mouthas wide as possible. Then I made a lire--tion as if to pass the instrument inside. At sight of it the big'fellow shut his mouth arid began to cry and trumpet like a great baby. He became so frightened that he never repeated his trick with the oats again. “What about Sammy, you ask? Why, that sly little rascal is more trouble than all the rest of the circus elephants put together. He gets loose just whenever he wants to. But then, you see, he’s the baby of the family and that, of course, make a difference.”