Circus Elephant Heeds "Jump" Command Before Train Wreck

1905

TILLIE'S LITTLE TRICK WINS

Brookville, Ind., Aug. 17. — Circus tricks saved the life of Tillie, a trick elephant, in a freight wreck here yesterday. The Robinson circus train was standing on the Big Four tracks waiting for orders when a fast freight, running about thirty-five miles an hour, ran into it. Tillie was in one of the forward cars, and when her keeper saw the train bearing down on them he shouted:

"Jump, Tillie; jump."

The elephant, used to the command in the circus ring, jumped as she was bidden and cleared the car, receiving a slight sprain from the impact with the ground, some distance away. The trainer also jumped. The car in which they had been was wrecked. The circus employees nearly all were asleep at the time, and were thrown from their bunks to the floors of the cars, and some of them sustained serious injuries, but it is not thought that any are fatally hurt.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Aug. 17, 1905, p. 3.