Rant #2,293: The Weight

Today is January 4, the first Friday of the new year.

And today is the 116th anniversary of the death of Topsy the elephant.

If you don't know about Topsy the elephant, you will learn a little about the strange saga of this animal right here and right now.

I am not going to give you every single minute detail about Topsy the elephant, but I will provide to you at least enough so that you can tell your friends, family and co-workers about it, and show how smart you are.

In the late 1870s, an elephant named Topsy was brought to the United States from its birthplace in Africa. Brought here as an infant--from what I understand, the animal was brought her illegally--the elephant was erroneously billed as the first elephant born in captivity in the United States, and grew up as an attraction at one of the many circuses that spanned the country at the time.

In 1902, at the age of 27, Topsy had become irritated at something while performing, and the elephant actually killed a spectator. The elephant had had a reputation at being difficult to begin with, and this incident just added to its reputation.

Shortly thereafter, Topsy was sold to the Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, and as an attraction there, was involved in several other incidents, adding to its reputation as being difficult.

With its reputation intact, and with the possibility of drawing large crowds to a major spectacle, Topsy the elephant was sentenced to death by the owners of Coney Island. They planned on not only poisoning the animal, but also electrocuting it and strangling it for good measure.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals tried to intercede on the animal's behalf, and the owners of Coney Island stepped down on one of the things that they had wanted to do, which was make the killing of the animal a public spectacle.

Instead, an invitee-only crowd gathering on January 4, 1903 to watch the execution, which happened as planned.

This would be the stuff of legends if not for one thing.

In attendance at the execution was the fledgling Edison Manufacturing Movie Company, and the entire event was filmed, with the intent in using it in one of the time's popular coin operated kinescope machines as an attraction called "Electrocuting An Elephant."

Of course, in the succeeding decades, numerous animals have been put to death due to a variety of reasons, including attacking human handlers, as happened at the end of last year at a wildlife sanctuary in North Carolina, where a young worker was killed when a lion was able to escape a handling pen while its den was being cleaned.

But the story of Topsy really trumps all of these incidents, because it is probably the first--and only--time when an animal's death reached the level of fame that this incident did.

During the ensuing years, word spread that Thomas Edison himself was somehow involved in the animal's death, using the incident to try to catapult his and his company's fame even further.

But whatever the case, the incident did happen, and you can actually see the disturbing video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/NoKi4coyFw0

I had heard about this story some time ago, and yes, while it is a downer, it is quite an interesting piece of Americana.

There is really not much else to say about it, other than that it did happen, and today is the anniversary of it being carried out and filmed for posterity.

It's not the nicest way to end the week, but all I can say is that anything I write about on Monday has to be an improvement over this story.

And remember, an elephant never forgets.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.