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Show '"Man-Killer" Elephants Occasionally Run Amok The most vicious of working elephants ele-phants is the dreaded "man-killer," writes W. Leigh Williams in Sunday at Home. In contrast to the "rogue," which is a genuine wild elephant of savage and solitary habit, the man-killer man-killer is a worker, almost always a first class worker, who occasionally occasion-ally runs amok. These brutes average aver-age about one in a hundred of a herd. Their murderous proclivities ' are generally thought to be due to some fault in early training, some failure to break their spirit when in the pen. When inspecting a new herd, it is easy to distinguish the man-killer at a glance, for his every movement Is shadowed by a man on foot armed with a long, sharp spear. This is the assistant rider, grimly certain of eventual promotion. On his neck sits a man whose application for a policy would be refused by any life insurance society in the world. A brave man, who has probably helped to bury the mangled remains of his predecessor, he is highly paid, and thus able to afford the opium with which he keeps up his courage. For he never knows when a sudden sud-den and horrible death will overtake over-take him. The elephant may be perfectly behaved for years, then without warning turn on his rider and tear him to pieces or trample him to a jelly. Why are these brutes not destroyed after their first kill? Well, a first class working tusker is worth several hundred pounds. |