Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1879 — Killed for His Folly. [ARTICLE]

Killed for His Folly.

Cooper BnUcy 4 Co., proprietors of the Great London and International Australian Show, have sustained a heavy loss in the death of the elephant “Romeo,” which took place under peculiarly horrible circumstances, in Boonville, Mo., last Tuesday. “Romeo” was one of the ten trained elephants whose performances have so far been one of the most attractive of the many interesting features of this monster combination, and was valued at $35 - 000. Hewas a great fevorfS vdth the circus attaches, and was a noble beast, whose loss is deplored as much on account of the sympathy that existed between himself and the people with whom he was In contact as for the money value which he represented. The showmen had heard of the terrible accident on the day of its occurrence, but no details were received until yesterday, when the manner of the beast’s death was learned.

One of the appuitenances of the Great London Show Is an immense electric apparatus, which is used in oonnection with the electric light that supplies illumination for the entire canvas of th© circus. This machine consists of a large magnet and an immense armature, which is made to revolve 250 times in aminute by means of a thirty* five-horse power engine. The aDnar•***■of intense electrical pow<£; a knife hlade held within two feet of It becoming so heavily charged with the current that it can be used thereafter wa loadstone. Well, laetWednesday Professor Sherman was getting his battery in readiness for the afternoon performance, had “fired up,” set the map chine in motion, and dick, ehek, went the light, one after the other, as the electricity flew along the insulated <*W*a. When all was m working shape the Professor sauntered off leisurely, and had not his attention called to the machine again until be heard an unearthly roar, and a crash coming from the direction of the lottery. He was

startled, as was also the small army of workmen inside the tents, and the large army of boys and idlers on the outside. Everybody rushed to the spot The roan continued to resound through the canvas, and for a while the greatest consternation held the crowd. On approaching the vicinity of the eleotrto machine, the great elephant “Borneo,” was found In the throes of the death agony, and with his trunk torn away by the roots from its base. The poor beast lay there shorn of its strength, and presenting a horrible, mutilated appearance. Everything was done that It was possible to do for

the dying animal, but its agonies were terrible, and when at length it gasped its last, there was a feeling of relief among those who surrounded its mountainous corpse. Joseph Kinslow, the leader of the band, who wjjmessed the accident, says that “Romeo,” who was roaming around in the tent with his nine giant companions, shambled up to the machine and was sniffing at the armature, when its trunk was caught in the revolving apparatus, and the animal was thrown violently to the ground and the trunk carried away by the whirling machinery. Professor Sherman righted his apparatus in a short time, and the few necessary repairs were immediately made. “Romeo” was buried in a Spot within the show grounds, where a mound of earth now marks the last resting place of the “noblest Roman of them all,” and the proprietors of the show have telegraphed Mr. Charles Reiche, the great animal importer of New York, l or another elephant to supply the' unfortunate ‘ ‘Romeo’s’ ’ place.