Wednesday, August 26, 2009

4-Paw & Sells Africans #6


SAVE0771, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Adam Forepaugh & Sells Bros. Circus 1898
(James A. Bailey, W.W. Cole, Ephriam, Lewis and Peter Sells)

P.H. "4-Paw Patsy" Meagher- Elephant Superintendent
William Badger- Asst.
Frank Bloomer, Jas.White, Chas. Leberman and Julius Lorina

1. Sid (male)
2. Sells Queen
3. Sells Babe
4. Sells Dutch
5. Mike (African male)
6. Topsy (African female)
7. 4-Paw Babe
8. 4-Paw Topsy
9. Rubber
10. Betts
11. Romeo
12. Victoria
13. Dick (male)
14. John (male)

(Early the following season in Brooklyn, "4-Paw Topsy" killed a man named Fielding Mount who was visiting the show. She was donated to nearby Coney Island Park but after a futile attempt to handle her, she was executed by electrocution, an event filmed by the Thomas Edison Movie Co.)

Program:
Ring 1- Sells Elephants presented by James "Star Kid" Chambers.
Ring 2- 4-Paw Dancing Eight presented by P.H. Forepaugh.
Ring 3- Baby elephant "Cuba"/ zebra and ponies presented by Frank J. Melville.

With Barnum & Bailey in Europe and this show booked in the mid-west, no circus appeared in Madison Sq. Garden in 1898.
Ephriam Sells died Aug.1.

Posted by Buckles at 8/26/2009 05:01:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting that there were four males in the herd. Wallace also had a significant number of males. Had there always been a substantial number of males on tour? When did the attitude towards them really change?

26 August, 2009 09:18
Anonymous said...

Conventional wisdom seems that you don't approach an elephant from behind, unless you make it known you're there. Given the center placement of these bulls in the menagerie, does that present any special problem? It also placed a lot of manure into the center of the public space.

26 August, 2009 12:39
Wade G. Burck said...

Anonymous,
I think the attitude towards them changed when it started becoming harder to dispose of a dead body. Once you couldn't drop them in the street and blame it on a runaway horse carriage things changed. In later years, the "hit by a car" deal was tried, but it didn't work, because as a rule car's don't crap on you when they whack you. LOL
Wade

26 August, 2009 14:40
Anonymous said...

How did they keep them from chewing on the center pole ropes,etc. and causing problems. Was told they placed them along the sidewall for that very reason to keep them out of trouble.

26 August, 2009 19:56

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