Forepaugh's Christmas Gift - Bolivar the Elephant's Entry into the Zoo

The Buffalo Courier - 13 January 1889

THK BIGEST ELEPHANT. 

Forepauph's Gift to the City of Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia Times.

PHILDELPHIA, Dec.26 - Adam Forepaugh's famous elephant Bolivar, the greatest pachydermatous bulk in the realms of civilization, entered the Zoo yesterday morning at the veteran showman's Christmas gift.

 Bolivar left his old quarters at Richmond at 7 o'clock. He traveled to his new home in great state. Adam Forepaugh, jr., attended him in a carriage, An aid rode by his side on horseback carrying a spear. Keeper Johnson, a colored groom and two escorting elephants completed the party. 

The strange maintinal excursion caused a sensation in the line of march, even at that early hour. The passage of the Girard avenue bridge was made with an escorting contingent of a million small boys. At the entrance of the Zoo the waves of juvenility proved resistless and a flood of sight-seers swept on to the elephant house. 

Superintendent Brown and Head Keeper Byrne were on hand to receive the hugh gift. The head keeper swung back the door in the rear of the elephant cage and Bolivars attendants urged him in. In the cage were the two female pachyderms, Jennie and Empress. Jennie is twenty-six years old, and has worn widow's weeds for a number of years. Empress is a maiden of sixteen. The only lover she ever had was toe youthful Don Pedro, whose lamentable death happened two years ago.

 At Bolivar's intrusion Jennie, with matronly rage, trumpeted and then struck the prince of pachyderms a remonstrating whack with her trunk. Empress looked on shyly. At the sight of the two female occupants of the room Bolivar modestly withdrew. For some time Head Keeper Byrne and Bolivar's trainer labored in vain to induce him to re-enter toe apartment. A bright idea occurred to Byrne. He chained the expostulating female elephants to opposite corners of the room. Then Bolivar entered. 

Although Jennie sulked in her corner all the morning, the innocent young Empress expressed the greatest delight for her new companion. She caressed him all day. He soon appeared to be perfectly at home. 

Old Pete, the ugly thirty-six-year-old rhinoceros next door, was the only one who, as the day went on, refused to become reconciled to the new arrival. His jealousy was excited, explained Head Keeper Byrne, because be feared that he wouldn't get his usual holiday supply of peanuts. For hours, snorting with rage, he hurled himself against toe brick partition separating him from the obnoxious newcomer.

At about noon Charles Johnson, who has been Bolivar's keeper for many years, and Keeper Pendergrast of the Zoo, served Bolivar and his new roommates with an elaborate Christmas dinner. Bolivar ate a barrel of cabbage, two bushels of potatoes, which he crushed under his feet and then mixed with hay, forming a sandwich loved by all healthy elephants, a peck of onions, twenty-five loaves of bread, a bushel of carrots and half a bushel of bran mush. He washed this down with sixty gallons of water and then used two hundred pounds of hay to pick his teeth. 

Before entering the house he weighed only about three hundred pounds less than five tons. Head Keeper Byrne said that when he had been in the Zoo a few weeks two tons would be added to his weight.

During the day the peanut basket in the elephant house, holding three bushels, was filled six times for Bolivar's insatiate maw. The keepers said that Bolivar would be dieted to-day in order to give his deranged digestive organs a chance to heal. 

Bolivar is twenty-six years old. He is the largest elephant in captivity and is still growing. He is ten feet high and is heavier than Jumbo was. Adam Forepaugh, jr., said yesterday that his father, as a Philadelphian, wished to present something to the Zoo that couldn't be excelled. He thought he had done it. The management of the Zoological society now claim to have the finest elephants, lions, tigers and snakes in the country. 

Large crowds filled the gardens yesterday. The weather was autumnal and inviting, and Bolivar was an irresistible attraction. Many prominent people took part in his reception. 

The women and children in the garden did not forget their favorite chimpanzee, Miss Topsy. They brought her little Christmas toys and bon-bons, What delighted her above all were a number of little looking-glasses. She spent the remainder of the day after receiving them in arranging her toilet. The two little lemurs who are her companions were also made happy with appropriate gifts.

Empress the Elephant vs. the King of Beasts in O'Brien's Circus Winter Quarters in Frankford, Pa.

Utica Daily Observer 22 Feb 1889

The Elephant Too Much for the Lion.

 A battle between a lion and an elephant alarmed the people of Frankford, and but for the speedy victory of the huge beast it is feared that disastrous consequences would hare resulted, says the Philadelphia correspondent of the Cincinnati Inquirer. 

The fight occurred in Lowande's barn, where a number of wild animals that travel with O'Brien's circus are being wintered by John Cather. On Saturday the lion broke the bars of his cage, and soon had his freedom. Having been kept on short rations, the king of beasts started in to have a royal feast, and a meek-eyed camel was selected for the principal dish. With one bound the lion was on the came's back, and his claws sank deep into the flesh. 

His huge fangs soon tore a hole in the neck of the camel, and the lion was sucking at its blood. The keeper conceived the idea of turning the vicious elephant Empress on to the lion. Empress was
undismayed at the growls of the lion. She had witnessed too many such scenes, besides she had killed five keepers since she had been in captivity, and seemed anxious to add to her laurels. The lion arose as Empress approached, but he was not quick enough to get out of the way, for with one powerful blow from her trunk Empress hurled the king of beasts against the stable wall. 

The lion made a dash at Empress with wild fury. He leaped upon her hind quarters and the elephant trumpeted with rage and pain as she felt the lion's claws scratching her think skin, but odds were against the king of beasts, for he was quickly routed from his position by the point of a pitchfork by a keeper, and the elephant turned just in time to catch her antagonist with her trunk. She held him high in the air for a moment, and then hurled him clear across the stable. 

The lion was evidently severely hurt, for he kept so still that the men had little trouble in moving and leading him into another cage. The camel's carcass was skinned yesterday and the meat served to the animals. 

Bolivar The Elephant Attempts Prison Break At Philadelphia ZOO - Inquirer 18 July 1902

Bolivar, the ponderous elephant at the Zoo, has heen on the rampage again, and, in consequence, the chains about his logs have been drawn in several links, bolivar's latest trick consisted of hurling his six ton» of flesh against the thick wall at the end of his cage. This delightful midsummer pastime not only proved extremely dangerous to visitors to the elephant house, but it likewise entailed considerable expense to the management of the Zoo. 

For a period of six or .seven years the stoutly-built brick wall in the huge pachyderm's cage has successfully withstood the terrific onslaughts of Sir Bolivar. Once a year the notorious man-killer becomes particularly vicious, and during these exhibitions of temper be is always carefully guarded. On Wednesday last Bolivar was seized with his annual attack of ugliness, and trouble again prevailed in the Zoo. The brick wall has always been an object of intense hatred to the elephant. He seemed to realize that it barred his way to freedom. 

It was during the early hours of the morning that Bolivar made his initial attack on the wall. Trumpeting with rage, the huge beast made a wild dash and threw his entire weight against the bricks and mortar. Terrific as this onslaught was, it failed to have any effect on the wall. The wild boars and peccaries in an adjoining cage caught the spirit of the pachyderm and added to the general confusion. 

In the meantime, Bolivar, now on the warpath in earnest, made a second attack on his hated enemy. This time the wall wavered, and, several bricks dropping, showed that Bolivar had drawn first blood. Following up the advantage gained, the maddened elephant again threw his six tons of flesh against the partition. This time half the wall fell amid a cloud of dust. 

Fortunately, "Bolivar was securely chained, and' was thus prevented from escaping. "Empress," his companion, who was unencumbered by fetters, was calmly making her way into the wild boar's cage, when several keepers appeared on the scene. 

After considerable difficulty the female elephant was coaxed back to her cage, in the meantime Bolivar, with a keen appreciation of his little joke, was coyly picking up bricks with his trunk and deftly hurling them at the keepers. It was only by dodging about in a most lively way that the keepers escaped serious injury. Bolivar was finally driven into a corner of the cage, where his chains were drawn about his legs as tightly as possible. 

The wild boars and peccaries were removed to an unoccupied cage. Yesterday workmen were busily engaged in repairing the damage done. From the corner of his cage Bolivar watched them with a twinkle in his tiny eyes. The workmen, while they labor, are carefully guarded by several keepers. Should Bolivar feel inclined to resume hostilities the bricklayers will doubtless experience a very unpleasant half hour or more. In anticipation of a contingency of this character, a small gate in the rear of the cage has been left open. 

In rebuilding the wall, Superintendent Brown says that it will be constructed in such a manner as to successfully withstand the fiercest attack Bolivar may make upon it. Bolivar was originally the property of a circus. After he had killed several of his keepers he was given to the Zoo. For more than a score of years he has stood within his cage, his legs shackled tightly. He sleeps upon his feet rocking mechanically from side to side; it is with much apprehension that his keepers look forward to his annual fits of insanity.


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