Elephant Trails by Rothfels Nigel;

Author:Rothfels, Nigel;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

A Descendant of Mastodons

In the early summer of 1913, a story circulated in local newspapers in Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi about an unusual event that had taken place in an arena in Mexico.1 The version of the article that appeared in the Lyons Republican of Lyons, Kansas, on June 3, 1913, led with the headline “Bull in Fight with an Elephant: Queer Combat Is Described by an American” and is filled with the sort of misinformation one gets used to with a topic like this. The article quotes a Mr. H. F. Lang of Philadelphia, who claims to have been walking down Mesa Street in El Paso toward San Jacinto Plaza when he heard “the familiar strains” of the Sousa tune Invincible Eagle being played by an approaching band. At the end of the procession, he recalled, there was a large elephant draped in a canvas painted with the message “This African elephant will fight a ferocious bull from Chicucha to the death in the bull ring in Juarez tomorrow, Sunday, February 10. Price for admission, $200, box seats; $150, shade seats; $100, sun seats.” February 10 was actually a Monday, “Chicucha” was presumably Chihuahua, and those would have been some very expensive seats! An advertisement preserved in the Municipal Archives in Seattle, Washington, corrects the article. The fight between the bulls and an Asian elephant named “Ned” took place on Sunday, February 2, 1913, with box seats going for $1.50, shade seats for $1.25, and sun seats for $1.00 (children were half price).2

According to the newspaper account, the fight began when Ned was led into the arena and chained to a stake by one of his hind legs to prevent him from reaching the public. A bugle sounded and a bull entered the ring through a gate, stabbed at the last moment with a banderillo, or barbed dart, a method of enraging bulls before a fight. The bull “ran around the ring once or twice and finally saw the elephant, and stood stock still, sizing up Mr. Elephant. The elephant also saw Mr. Bull at this time and they both stood staring at one another.” At this point, the article continues, the bull ran away, and the crowd called for another bull. This bull, too, ran and jumped a five-foot fence. The bull was rounded up and prodded back into the ring, this time stuck with a “rocket banderillo,” a lit firework that began to sputter on his back. The bull saw the red ribbons tied to the elephants’ neck and tail and charged. Ned parried by squatting down and when the bull struck him, the force “knocked the bull over.” Over the next hour, the article relates, the bull continued to charge and attempt to jump out of the arena. A bullfighter then entered the ring with his cape and killed the bull with a sword to its heart. It had, in the end, been a battle to the death, although the audience most likely had hoped to see the bull killed by the elephant rather than a man.

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