Page:Jungle Joe, pride of the circus; the story of a trick elephant (IA junglejoeprideof00hawk).pdf/94

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stick was always in readiness if the great beast got to killing the men and could not be controlled. Before they started with the first elephant, a double row of stakes was driven in the ground along the way the elephant should be led, and he went between the stakes. The ropes which the men held were passed over these stakes, in the same way a derrick is staked down by guy-ropes. So the men had to furnish only half the pull upon the elephant, and the stake did the rest.

This was the only way that the twenty-four men could hold the elephant, and even so, some of them got away. Arrived at the stocks, the elephant was guided to his particular stall and his head secured between two large posts whieh had been set in the ground for that purpose. A pole was later set up on either side of him, and