The humor of elephants is sometimes almost as remarkable as their
intelligence. In 1887 I purchased an elephant in New York to send to
Australia, and as we were in a great hurry to catch the steamer from
San Francisco, I arranged to have the animal brought as far west as
Chicago by passenger train instead of freight. He was loaded in a
special car which was placed just behind the baggage car, and in due
time started from the depot in New York. Shortly after leaving Albany
the conductor was surprised to have the bell rope pulled violently. The
train, of course, stopped, but the conductor could not find that
anything was wrong or discover the man who had pulled the rope. Another
start was made, and when nearing Syracuse a second violent tugging
brought the train to a stop. The conductor instructed the brakeman to
keep strict watch on the passengers, thinking all the time that some
one had been playing a joke on him. Nearing Rochester, however, the
same thing occurred again, to the great fright of some of the
passengers, notably one old lady, who declared the train to be haunted,
and averred that spirit forms were tugging at the rope. As the rope
continued to be pulled thorough investigations were now made and the
train crew experienced little difficulty in tracing the cause of the
trouble to the elephant. On opening the door of the last car that
animal was discovered sitting on his haunches and deliberately pulling
the cord, and the elephant seemed to derive as much pleasure from it as
a child would from a new toy. The passengers were reassured and the old
lady was convinced of her error when she learned that the spirit form
that pulled the cord weighed about three tons.
In India where elephants are kept at all military barracks for
transportation purposes, it is no uncommon thing for the officers to
leave their children in the elephants' charge for hours together, the
huge animals taking the most tender care of their little friends.
Elephants have a great dread of rodents and even insects. The presence
of a rat or mouse will greatly excite them, and even the gnats or fleas
annoy them exceedingly.
One of our largest elephants took quite a fancy to the son of a rider,
and the boy used to spend every afternoon in the menagerie lying on the
hay close to the animal. The lad never displayed the slightest fear,
and the elephant invariably showed its pleasure when its pet came
inside the inclosure. It would entwine its trunk around him and gently
draw him close, then settle back in a recumbent position, allowing the
child to take whatever liberty he liked. The pair attracted great
attention and were called "Beauty and the Beast."