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Your body can degrade whether you like it or not But your soul cannot degrade if you don't want it to.

Your body can degrade whether you like it or not But your soul cannot degrade if you don't want it to

The Ghost of Topsy the Elephant at Luna Park. August, 1905: The summer heat is Brooklyn is like being dipped in warm milk and fished out to dry. It’s less a climatological phenomenon and more a glumly malevolent miasma, determined to keep you sticky and clawing at your skin from June through September. Lou Barlow desperately wishes he was somewhere cool with a drink in one hand and a cigar in the other, but duty calls, and today his duty as head elephant man of Luna Park apparently involves standing in a vacant lot behind the elephant stables on West 12th and Surf Avenue watching a work crew dig. Hugh Thomas looks amused, at least. He’s had that funny expression of mingled humor and puzzlement on his puss ever since Barlow approached him about the unsettled state of his three best elephants, Fanny, Alice, and Jenny. They’re good animals, well-trained and docile and used to the chaos of crowds and circus life. At least, they had been before coming to Coney Island. But something’s had them spooked bad recently, to the point where poor old Fanny had broken free of her tethers a week previous and tried swimming to Red Hook. Something behind the stables that his human eyes aren’t catching, some smell or shadow or trick of the light. He’s trod over the plot of land a hundred times looking for the source and come up with nothing. Always that spot, and no other. Frustrated, he had complained to Thomas, whose eyebrows had nearly jumped free of his face. The work foreman had barked a sudden odd laugh. “That’s a funny thing,” he said, after a long moment’s pause. “Damned funny. You come out there around 3 and I’ll show you a thing.” And so Barlow had come, and so Barlow stands here now, perspiring in places you wouldn’t even figure a man had pores. Black dirt flies out of the hole in gritty waves. The workmen grunt and mutter. Fanny, Alice, and Jenny watch from their nearby tethers, intent but showing no signs of their previous alarm. Another five minutes of sweat-popping work and there’s a noise like the shovels have just encountered an old pipe, a hollow clang! that signals they’ve reached whatever Thomas sent them after. “Take a look,” Thomas says casually, almost off-handedly. He looks like he’s ready to laugh or maybe swear again; it’s rather hard to tell. The three elephants trumpet as one, a mournful call Barlow has never heard them make in all his years of training. The noise makes the hairs on his arms stand at attention. It’s the skull of an elephant, well-rotted after years of burial in the Coney Island soil. With all the flesh removed the enormous nasal cavity looks like the eye of a cyclops, glaring accusingly up at him from its forgotten resting place. There’s faint, cloying smell of wet earth and decayed flesh. “There’s your spook,” says Thomas. “Old Topsy again, come back to haunt us for our misdeeds. I was there when they put her head in the ground. Wonder if your girls could smell her down there or what. Damnedest thing.” Again that mournful cry from the three, a final time. It almost sounds like they’re singing.

The Ghost of Topsy the Elephant at Luna Park. An uneventful year passed after Topsy’s electrocution. The world forgot about her, even as the park she had given her life for opened and became a world-famous attraction. Topsy, though, had apparently not yet forgotten the world that had dealt her such a poor hand. And reader, she was effin’ pissed. According to a report in the Bristol Banner dated March 4th, 1904, the first to witness her return was Antonio Pussiani, a builder at Luna Park. He went for a smoke one night and was ambushed by Topsy’s furious spirit, “eyes burning, feet wide apart, and trunk issuing sparks of fire.” Understandably, he did the natural thing and fainted. A co-worker rushed outside to see what the commotion was about and saw the apparition as well as it faded, accompanied by “shrill trumpetings rising and dying away on the wind, and the rattle of chains.” For the next fortnight, Topsy’s ghost was everywhere. She ambushed a hot dog vendor closing up shop for the night. She walked through walls, unhindered by the corporeal body that had previously kept her kidnappers and tormentors safe. No bullet, bullhook, pitchfork, or war bridle could stop her now. One builder swore he had seen her hanging by her trunk from the tight wire between the top of the chutes and the Electric Tower, wiggling her colossal toes at him. As said builder had also drained six bottles of Chianti beforehand, the paper advised that “he was not believed.” Things got so bad that Pussiani and a delegation of Coney Island laborers confronted Hugh Thomas, the work foreman and chief electrician of Luna Park who had overseen the switch being thrown on Topsy a year earlier. He laughed at them, scoffing at their stories as humbug and “hocus pocus.” He also paid each of them off and took a brief vacation to Manhattan, for reasons best known to himself. “At last accounts,” the missive ends, “the elephant was still fussing around for its destroyer. ”

R. I. P Topsy and The Ghost of Topsy the Elephant at Luna Park. Topsy (circa 1875 – January 4, 1903) was a female Asian elephant who was killed by electrocution at Coney Island, New York, in January 1903. Born in Southeast Asia around 1875, Topsy was secretly brought into the United States soon thereafter and added to the herd of performing elephants at the Forepaugh Circus, who fraudulently advertised her as the first elephant born in America. During her 25 years at Forepaugh, Topsy gained a reputation as a "bad" elephant and, after killing a spectator in 1902, was sold to Coney Island's Sea Lion Park. When Sea Lion was leased out at the end of the 1902 season and replaced by Luna Park, Topsy was involved in several well-publicized incidents, attributed to the actions of either her drunken handler or the park's new publicity-hungry owners, Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy. Topsy was born in the wild around 1875 in Southeast Asia and was captured soon after by elephant traders. Adam Forepaugh, owner of the Forepaugh Circus, had the elephant secretly smuggled into the United States with plans that he would advertise the baby as the first elephant born in America. At the time Forepaugh Circus was in competition with the Barnum & Bailey Circus over who had the most and largest elephants. The name "Topsy" came from a slave girl character in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Forepaugh announced to the press in February 1877 that his circus now boasted "the only baby elephant ever born on American soil". The elephant trader who sold Topsy to Forepaugh also sold elephants to P. T. Barnum and tipped Barnum off about the deception. Barnum exposed the hoax publicly and Forepaugh stopped claiming that Topsy was born in America, only advertising that she was the first elephant born outside a tropical zone. At maturity, Topsy was 10 ft (3.0 m) high and 20 ft (6.1 m) long, with claims she weighed between 4 and 6 short tons (3.6 and 5.4 long tons; 3.6 and 5.4 metric tons). Over the years, Topsy gained a reputation as a "bad" elephant. In 1902, another event brought her again to prominence: the killing of spectator James Fielding Blount[4] in Brooklyn, New York, at what was then the Forepaugh & Sells Brothers' Circus. Accounts vary as to what happened but the common story is that on the morning of May 27, 1902, a possibly drunk Blount wandered into the menagerie tent where all the elephants were tied in a line and began teasing them in turn, offering them a bottle of whiskey. He reportedly threw sand in Topsy's face and then burnt the extremely sensitive tip of her trunk with a lit cigar.[5] Topsy threw Blount to the ground with her trunk and then crushed him with her head, knees, or foot. Newspaper reports on Blount's death contained what seem to be exaggerated accounts of Topsy's man-killing past, with claims that she killed up to 12 men, but with more common accounts that, during the 1900 season, she had killed two Forepaugh & Sells Brothers' Circus workers, one in Paris, Texas and one in Waco, Texas. Journalist Michael Daly, in his 2013 book on Topsy, could find no record of anyone being killed by an elephant in Waco, and a handler attacked by Topsy in Paris suffered injuries but there is no record of him dying.[1] The publicity generated by Topsy's man killing brought very large crowds to the circus to see the elephant. In June 1902 during the unloading of Topsy from a train in Kingston, New York, a spectator named Louis Dodero used a stick in his hand to "tickle" Topsy behind the ear. Topsy seized Dodero around the waist with her trunk, hoisted him high in the air and threw him back down before being stopped by a handler.[1] Because of this attack, the owners of Forepaugh & Sell Circus decided to sell Topsy.[6] Sea Lion and Luna Park Topsy was sold in June 1902 to Paul Boyton, owner of Coney Island's Sea Lion Park, and added to the menagerie of animals on display there. The elephant's handler from Forepaugh, William "Whitey" Alt,[7] came along with Topsy to work at the park. A bad summer season and competition with the nearby Steeplechase Park made Boyton decide to get out of the amusement park business. At the end of the year he leased Sea Lion Park to Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy who proceeded to redevelop it into a much larger attraction and renamed it Luna Park.[6] Topsy was used in publicity, moving timbers and even the fanciful airship Luna, part of the amusement ride A Trip to the Moon, from Steeplechase to Luna Park, characterized in the media as "penance" for her rampaging ways.[6] During the moving of the Luna in October 1902, handler William Alt was involved in an incident where he stabbed Topsy with a pitchfork trying to get her to pull the amusement ride. When confronted by a police officer, Alt turned Topsy loose from her work harness to run free in the streets, leading to Alt's arrest. The occurrence was attributed to the handler's drinking. In December 1902, a drunk Alt rode Topsy down the town streets of Coney Island and walked, or tried to ride, Topsy into the local police station. Accounts say Topsy tried to batter her way through the station door and "she set up a terrific trumpeting", leading the officers to take refuge in the cells. The handler was fired after the incident. Without Alt to handle Topsy, the owners of Luna Park, Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, claimed they could no longer handle the elephant and tried to get rid of her, but they could not even give her away and no other circus or zoo would take her. On December 13, 1902, Luna Park press agent Charles Murray released a statement to the newspapers that Topsy would be put to death within a few days by electrocution. At least one local paper noted that the steady drone of events and reports regarding Topsy from the park had the hallmarks of a publicity campaign designed to get the new park continually mentioned in the papers.[1][8] On January 1, 1903, Thompson and Dundy announced plans to conduct a public hanging of the elephant,[9] set for January 3 or 4, and collect a twenty-five cents a head admission to see the spectacle.[10] The site they chose was an island in the middle of the lagoon for the old Shoot the Chute ride where they were building the centerpiece of their new park, the 200-foot Electric Tower (the structure had reached a height of 75 feet at the time of the killing). Press agent Murray arranged media coverage and posted banners around the park and on all four sides of the makeshift gallows advertising, "OPENING MAY 2ND 1903 LUNA PARK $1,000,000 EXPOSITION, THE HEART OF CONEY ISLAND". On hearing Thompson and Dundy's plans, the President of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, John Peter Haines, stepped in and forbade hanging as a "needlessly cruel means of killing [Topsy]" and also told Thompson and Dundy they could not conduct a public spectacle and charge admission. Thompson and Dundy discussed alternatives with Haines, going over methods used in previous attempts to euthanize elephants including poisoning, but that, as well as a 1901 attempt to electrocute an elephant named Jumbo II two years earlier in Buffalo, New York, were botched.[11] After much negotiation, which included Thompson and Dundy trying to give the elephant to the ASPCA, a method of strangling the elephant with large ropes tied to a steam-powered winch was agreed upon. They also agreed they would use poisoning and electricity as well.[10] The date of Topsy's demise was finally set for Sunday, January 4, 1903. The press attention the event had received brought out an estimated 1500 spectators and 100 press photographers as well as agents from the ASPCA to inspect the proceedings. Thompson and Dundy allowed 100 spectators into the park although more climbed through the park fence. Many more were on the balconies and roofs of nearby buildings, which were charging admission to see the event.[10] The Electric Tower had been re-rigged with large ropes set up to strangle the elephant, which were inspected by the ASPCA agents to make sure they conformed to what had been agreed. The details of the electrocution part of the execution were handled by workers from the local power company, Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, under the supervision of chief electrician P. D. Sharkey.[12] They spent the night before[12] stringing power lines from the Coney Island electrical substation nine blocks to the park to carry alternating current they planned to redirect from a much larger plant in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. At Bay Ridge the staff was told to "get an engine ready and clear a feeder and bus to Coney Island Station".[13] Topsy was led out of her pen into the unfinished Luna Park by Carl Goliath, an expert on elephants who formerly worked for animal showman Carl Hagenbeck. Newspaper accounts of the events noted that Topsy refused to cross the bridge over the lagoon, ignoring prodding by Goliath and even bribes of carrots and apples.[14] The owners of Luna Park then tried to get William Alt, who would not watch the killing, to lead Topsy across the bridge, but he declined an offer of $25 to coax her to her death[1] saying he would “not for $1000”.[1] They finally gave up trying to get Topsy across the bridge and decided to "bring death to her".[15] The steam engine, ropes, and the electrical lines were re-rigged to the spot where Topsy stood. The electricians attached copper-lined sandals connected to AC lines to Topsy's right fore foot and left hind foot so the charge would flow through the elephant's body.[16] With chief electrician Sharkey making sure everyone was clear, Topsy was fed carrots laced with 460 grams of potassium cyanide by press agent Charles Murray who then backed away. At 2:45pm Sharkey gave a signal and an electrician on a telephone told the superintendent at Coney Island station nine blocks away to close a switch and Luna Park chief electrician Hugh Thomas closed another one at the park, sending 6,600 volts from Bay Ridge across Topsy's body for 10 seconds, toppling her to the ground. According to at least one contemporary account, she died "without a trumpet or a groan".[17] After Topsy fell, the steam-powered winch tightened two nooses placed around her neck for 10 minutes. At 2:47, Topsy was pronounced dead.[18] An ASPCA official and two veterinarians employed by Thompson and Dundy determined that the electric shock had killed Topsy. During the killing the superintendent of the Coney Island station, Joseph Johansen, became "mixed up in the apparatus" when he threw the switch sending power to the park and was nearly electrocuted. He was knocked out and left with small burns from the power traveling from his right arm to his left leg.[19] Topsy was a rebellious troublemaker for her owner, Sea Lion Park, later to become Luna Park in Coney Island. So on Jan. 4, 1903, Topsy was fed cyanide,electrocuted and strangled. Her execution was filmed by the Edison Manufacturing Co. One year after her death workers reported that "an astral body of huge dimensions" trod the streets of Luna Park at midnight, clanking her chains and bellowing. The following summer, the handlers noticed that the other elephants behaved strangely when they came to a certain place in the park. The spot was dug up and six feet below the surface they found Topsy's skull. As they pulled it out of the earth, the elephants "trumpeted mournfully...and walked silently to their quarters." From "Behemoth, The History of the Elephant in America" by Ronald B. Tobias

Ghost of elephant Romeo Directions: Take Highway 11 into Delavan. Highway 11 will become W. Walworth Ave., and then E. Walworth Ave. Romeo's statue is on the corner of E. Walworth & N. 2nd St. (next to the watertower). Continue on Highway 11, until you reach Highway 50 west. Take Highway 50 (west) past Interstate 43. Lake Delavan will be on your right-hand side. In Circus history, it's not only the human performers who are remembered. Certain animal acts are also remebered in the fondest of terms. In the case of Indian elephants, Romeo and Juliet, both are remembered, but only one of them is remembered fondly. Statue of Romeo Romeo stood 19 1/2 feet tall and weighed 10,500 lbs. He also had a nasty habit of killing his keepers. By the time he died, in the summer of 1872, Romeo was responsible for the deaths of five people, and at least 25 horses. He also nearly tore apart a theater in Chicago, and terrorized the cites of Delavan & Lake Geneva when he had escaped from his pen, one winter day. By contrast, Juliet, was a gentle giant. A charming animal, who was loved by her trainers, and people all over the country. Originally from the area that is now known as Sri-Lanka, Juliet came to America in 1851, to work in P.T. Barnum's Asiatic Caravan. It was during the 1850's, that Juliet was paired up with Romeo, and the two would perform a musical act. Romeo would turn the crank on a hand organ, while Juliet would dance. In February of 1864, Juliet died at the Circus' winter camp, along the northern banks of Lake Delavan (where Lake Lawn Resort is today). With the ground frozen solid, it was ordered that Juliet's body be dragged out to the frozen lake, and left. Then once the lake melted, the body would, and did sink to the bottom. It is said, that it was Romeo who was forced to drag Juliet's body across the frozen lake (the Circus would later use this experience as the reason why Romeo turned mean, and to garner sympathy, to prevent him from being exterminated after each of his attacks). Some say it wasn't Juliet's death that turned Romeo mean, but the death of another elephant, by the name of Canada (whether this was before or after Juliet's death, is unknown by this author). Canada died when she fell through the floor of a train car as it traveled over a bridge in Iowa. Before Canada fell, it was Romeo that held onto her for over an hour. When it became apparent that Canada could not be saved, and for fear of losing both elephants, trainers forced Romeo to let go of his hold on Canada. Canada fell. Severly injuring herself, she had to be exterminated. It is belived by some, that this was the moment Romeo turned bitter, violent, and most of all, hold a grudge. Over the next few years, Romeo became impossible to control. His rampages became folly for the newspapers, who reported on every death, and every violent outbreak. At one point getting so bad, that on February 25, 1872, the New York Times told it's readers, that "Romeo has outlived his usefulness." On June 7th, 1872, Romeo died in Chicago, from an infected foot. Upon death, his body was removed from the Circus grounds, and taken to the public dump, where it was left to rot. Today, the only reminder that Romeo ever existed, is the statue of him that sits on the corner of E. Walworth Ave. and N. 2nd St., in Delavan. But if there was an elephant mean enough to return from the great beyond, it's Romeo An elephant's trunk has been seen sticking out of the water (in Lake Delavan). The sound of an elephant "trumpeting" has been heard coming from the lake. To this day, fishermen still pull elephant bones out of Lake Delavan, and maybe for that reason, Juliet sticks her trunk out of the lake to let people know she's still there, and not happy. As for the trumpeting sound coming from the lake, that also could be Juliet, but some people also feel that it could be Romeo letting people know that he's still around, and not happy. Elephants never forget Lake Delawan

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