About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history treat it as escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America 2014.
The circus is coming to town! Coming to the Great Barrington Fairgrounds! Circus Smirkus promises all the thrills and excitement generated by those words. It features more than 30 talented and spirited young performers – all human. What it does not offer are animal acts. The latest trend is a circus without animals. It is empathic, kind, humane; an entertainment without cruelty. That is the sensibility today but it was not always what the public wanted.
In 1851 Raymond & Co. came to Berkshire County. The circus featured Herr Driesbach “the most celebrated of all animal performers.” The main attractions of this “traveling exhibition” were the animals.
“Raymond & Co.’s menageries are one large and varied exhibition consisting of all the rare animals now extant.”
There were the “Hippotamus [sic] the greatest curiosity in the animal world” and “the Rhinoceros unicorn of Holy Writ.” There were tigers, leopards, cougars, panthers, and twelve lions “some of which were presented to Herr Driesbach by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in his recent tour thro’ Europe.” Last and not least there were the elephants.
“The Beautiful Tippo Sultan who caused such a great sensation all over Europe…will go through a variety of performances, waltzing, balancing, ringing a bell, creeping on forelegs, drawing a cork from a bottle.”
Causing Tippo to trip the light fantastic was Herr Driesbach. He “enters the den of wild animals and performs the same as he did in all the principal cities of Europe.”
No one here or in Europe was curious to learn how panthers and lions were caused to jump at the crack of Driesbach’s whip. The absurdity of a four-ton (8,000 pound) animal waltzing – evidently – occurred to no one lost as they were in the wonder of it all.
Finally, there was Columbus. This elephant did nothing. He was meant only to be seen. Said to be 100 years old, Columbus weighed 10,730 pounds, better than five tons: “The monster elephant…largest in America if not the world.”
Raymond & Co. trudged through Berkshire thrilling inhabitants in Adams and Pittsfield. The circus played Adams on October 23, Pittsfield on the 24th, and was scheduled to play Lenox on the 26th. As Columbus crossed a bridge in Adams, the bridge gave under him. Columbus fell, and by November 6, he was dead.
Reports vary: Columbus fell 15 feet; Columbus fell 11½ feet. Columbus fell onto a dry river or creek bed; Columbus fell into water. One thing never explained satisfactorily is why, if Raymond & Co. were traveling from Pittsfield to Lenox, why were they crossing a bridge in Adams? Whatever the inconsistencies, all agree on this: his keepers pronounced Columbus uninjured and marched him to Lenox. Sadly, it may also be that he fell entering Adams and was untreated and not allowed to rest for a longer period.
The elephant arrived in Lenox exhausted and suffering – apparently – from internal injuries. Permission was gained from the owner to put Columbus in a Lenox barn. He fell to the ground never to rise again. For days his cries of pain could be heard for a great distance. Residents came from all over Berkshire, stood in the barn door, and watched Columbus die.
The plan was that the bones of this colossus would be donated to Williams College Natural History Department where they could be reassembled and exhibited. Attempts to disinter Columbus were repelled by the stench and the slow decomposition of his hide.
As late as 1859 “those approaching the mound for the purpose of exhuming the bones…have beat a hasty retreat.”
Eleven years after Columbus was buried, in 1862, his remains were dug up and presented to Williams College.
Raymond & Co. sued the town of Adams for $20,000 for the loss of their valuable commodity – Columbus. The first trial resulted in a hung jury and in the second the town prevailed.
The verdict may be a surprise, but there were mitigating circumstances. Ten years earlier in New Orleans, Columbus went on a rampage. To subdue him, three shots were fired from a rifle into Columbus’s head below the right eye. Those bullets were never removed. The defense argued that the cause of death could not be determined. The fall from the bridge may not have helped but the three bullets certainly hurt.
Lawsuit concluded, bones stored, Columbus was finally laid to rest.
