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 Jumbo refuses to leave London Zoo after he was sold to an owner who moved him to the United States |
Jumbo – the much loved giant who tragically stood his ground
Only his keeper, who got drunk with him as he nursed him back to health, had any control over the elephant whose stubborness cost him his life, writes Paul Chambers
Paul Chambers’ book Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World is published by André Deutsch
£14.99
FOR two decades in the 19th century, the people of north London idolised a giant African elephant who became so legendary that we still use his name, Jumbo, to describe large objects. They were not alone. Everyone in Victorian England loved Jumbo and visited him in their millions, but behind the stardom lies a darker, sadder tale that has remained untold for more than a century.
Jumbo was just a year old when he was captured by Sudanese tribesmen and marched across the Sahara desert to become the first African elephant to reach Europe since Roman times. For several years Jumbo lay neglected in a Parisian zoo until, in 1865, he caught the attention of Abraham Bartlett, the superintendent of Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens.
Bartlett desperately wanted an African elephant and persuaded the Parisians to swap him for a bad-tempered rhinoceros (the deal was worth around £30,000). However, when Bartlett received the diminutive four-year-old elephant he was shocked. “A more deplorable, diseased and rotten creature never walked God’s earth,” was the zoo’s opinion.
Bartlett ordered one of his keepers, Matthew Scott, to save Jumbo. Scott knew nothing about elephants, but for six months he did not leave Jumbo’s side and even slept in his stable. The elephant was cured, but thereafter would only accept instructions from Scott. The keeper and his elephant were inseparable and would get drunk together, singing and trumpeting into the early hours of the morning.
Jumbo had a growth spurt and was soon more than 11 feet tall and five tons in weight. He was billed as “the largest elephant in the world” and would give daily rides to hundreds of children. Jumbo was the zoo’s star attraction who drew in vast crowds, but behind the scenes things were going wrong.
Jumbo developed a temper which occasionally spilled over into violence. Fortunately these rages occurred at night allowing the zoo to keep them secret, but the steel-plated doors to his den were frequently left hanging by their hinges.
As a precaution, Bartlett bought a large gun, but Matthew Scott’s behaviour was also causing concern. Scott was using his power over Jumbo to blackmail Bartlett. Should any request be refused, Jumbo would mysteriously go on strike or lash out at other staff. Bartlett felt powerless until, in December 1881, he was telegrammed by the American showman Phineas T Barnum. He wanted Jumbo for his travelling circus and Bartlett immediately agreed to sell.
The public reacted with horror to the idea of Jumbo’s sale. Tens of thousands visited the zoo to express their displeasure and even Queen Victoria made her views known, but Bartlett would not be swayed.
A court injunction delayed Jumbo’s departure, but in March 1882 Barnum’s men arrived to collect their elephant. Jumbo could not be coaxed or dragged from his yard and lay on the ground looking utterly mournful. The watching crowd was reduced to tears. It took three weeks and a threat from Bartlett to Scott before Jumbo could be loaded onto a ship. Scott went as well to help settle him in.
Barnum’s flair for publicity ensured that Jumbo’s arrival was the biggest event in New York’s history. For months Jumbo’s every move made the headlines turning Barnum’s circus into a nightly sell-out.
Scott stayed with the circus and for four years he and Jumbo toured the United States. Jumbo was so famous that he endorsed products and was even paid to cross the new Brooklyn Bridge to prove its strength. Jumbo earned Barnum a fortune and for once everyone was happy.
On the night of September 15, 1885, the circus was in St Thomas, Ontario. After the show, Scott was walking Jumbo to his quarters along a railway track when he heard a train approaching. He tried to force Jumbo off the track, but he refused to budge. Scott threw himself clear and watched as the locomotive hit Jumbo square in the back. Jumbo was trapped beneath the derailed engine and lived for a further 15 minutes before taking one last, deep breath. Scott was inconsolable and wept over the body until dawn.
News of Jumbo’s death was cabled around the world. Barnum immediately ordered that the elephant’s body should be stuffed and mounted. Six months later the lifeless form of Jumbo rejoined the circus where he continued to draw large crowds. Scott was employed to stand next to his dead friend, but was so melancholic that Barnum let him go. Scott continued to follow the circus about for several months until Barnum had him placed on a ship to England.
The Jumbo exhibit was eventually donated to Barnum’s museum at Tufts University, Massachusetts. Here students admired him and touched his trunk for good luck, but in 1975 a terrible fire ripped through the museum. All that remains of Jumbo is his tail and a jar of his ashes although his skeleton is stored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
It was a sad end for the animal superstar who had given pleasure to millions but, as Barnum himself might well have said, the bigger they come, the harder they fall.
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