People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — AN ELEPHANT’S EMOTION. [ARTICLE]

AN ELEPHANT’S EMOTION.

He Was Overcome by Vestiges of ilia Deceased Mother. Some of the European newspapers are telling a truly veracious story of the sagacity of a trained elephant which adorns a French traveling show. The proprietor of the circus announced that on a certain night his elephant would play the Russian hymn on a piano with his trunk. Intense interest was aroused and when the evening came the expectant public crowded the circus to the roof, says the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. After the usual performances four men carried in a cottage piano, which they placed in the center of the arena. Then the intelligent animal was brought in, paraded with much dignity three times around the ring and then, amid the keenest excitement, advanced to the piano. With a movement of his trunk he touched the keyboard, but hardly had he done so when a surprising change came over him. He trembled with fear and rage, whirled his trunk into the air and then with a scream of terror rushed out of the arena.

There was a great hurrying to and fro of the employes of the circus proprietor and the elephant keeper left the ring for consultation. In a few minutes the proprietor returned and announced with< regret that the performance could not take place. The fact was, he said, that the elephant had recognized in the key-board of the instrument a portion of the tusks of his long-lost mother, who had fallen a prey to the ivory hunter* of Africa. He had suggested to the keeper that another piauo might be procured but that expert hud informed him that the animal was so overcome with emotion that it would be impossible for it to perform that evening. Under these circuibstanceg he suggested that the “Russian gymn,” followed by the “Marseillaise," should be played by the band. The entertainment was thus brought to a close amid the frantic applause of the audience.