Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The New Orleans Bee of March 10, says-“We learn by a gentleman who came passenger last evening on the steamer Princess, that the large male elephant of Messrs Hopkins & Co’s Menagerie, on Saturday morning killed the person who had been for some length of time employed to take charge of it. It appears that two elephants and a camel had been sent in advance of the other animals, en route for Clinton, the female elephant and the camel chained together. When about four miles from Baton Rouge, the male elephant refused to cross a small bridge-the keeper on foot procured a horse, for the purpose of driving it over, and in attempting to mount, the horse shied and threw the man in the road. The elephant immediately rushed upon him, caught him in its tusks, and threw him 40 or 50 feet in the air, which was repeated a number of times, the tusks frequently passing through his body. It then carried the body from the road towards the woods, tossing it in the air at intervals, until it fell between two fallen trees, which saved it from further violence. The infuriated animal then returned to the road, where the female elephant and camel had been chained to a tree by another keeper, and rushed upon them, his tusks passing through the camel, knocking down the female, and breaking the chain in two. The enraged animal then made off towards the woods, carrying the camel by its trunk, and throwing it at intervals in the air with its tusks. The other portion of the caravan now coming to the bridge, the elephant turned and made demonstrations of an attack upon it, when firearms were brought for requisition. A number of shots were fired on it, but without any effect.-Word was then sent to the U. S. garrison, and some thirty or forty of the soldiers were sent to dispatch it with their muskets. The neighbors also turned out with their rifles and shot guns, and some fifty or sixty shots were fired into or rather upon him, for the balls were frequently flattened up upon striking, and fell to the ground.
At length it was determined upon to send to the garrison, for a field piece to dispatch him, when one of the keepers procuring a spear, mounted a horse, and succeeded in wounding the elephant until he caused it to scream with pain and finally yield to subjection, when it was driven off with the balance. This is the same animal which killed one of its keepers some two or three years ago, at Algiers, opposite this city, and was only strayed from further mischief after fourteen shots had been fired into it.”