THE FARMVILLE HERALD — NOVEMBER 23, 1906
Practical Joker Turns Animal Loose in Iowa Republican
Meeting and Causes a Panic
Fairfield, Ia.—The Republican convention in session here the other day broke up with a stampede when a large elephant, weighing several tons and trumpeting furiously, suddenly squeezed through the wide double doorway and began stalking down the convention hall toward the presiding officer.
The elephant was the property of a visiting showman and had been dressed up with a large “G. O. P.” banner across its back and brought to the convention hall by a practical joker. But this fact did not impress itself all at once on the delegates.
Immediately there was a panic. Men rushed madly for the windows and leaped for their lives. Several were seriously injured and among them James Billings, a stanch Republican of this section. Mr. Billings was in the rear of the hail when the elephant entered and was first brought to a realization of the monster’s presence by feeling the hot breath of the breath on the back of his neck. Frightened half out of his wits, he made a mad rush for the window with the elephant following slowly in the wake. At the window he stopped not a second but literally rolled himself out. He landed on his side on the hard concrete walk below and suffered the fracture of his right arm. He was generally bruised shout on body.
