Topsy: The Startling Story of the Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.41 (517 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0802119042 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-10-13 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Barbara B. said LOVED this book. LOVED this book! The story was told in much detail with a minute look at circus life , as well as the history of elephants in the circus. Sometimes, it was a little hared to read about the horrific acts of cruelty towards the elephants, but important to know. I will never go to a circus again that has an animal "act".. "Sad story of animal abuse and human greed." according to Carol Thomas. Really dealt more with the bitter rivalry between Edison and Tesla, and the extreme lengths that the former would go to try to discredit the latter. Edison also electrocuted dogs and a few human condemned criminals. All to try to prove that his method of producing electricity was better than Tesla's. Cruelty that would never be allowed today, thank goodness. The animal rights people will be appalled by this book. With good reason. Topsy suffered years of serious abuse before her awful end.. "Topsy" according to csutherlan. A better title would have been something about how captive elephants have given their all to make the circus what it is, today. The book is not about Topsy, only, so the title was a little misleading for me. The circus, the competition between circus owners to acquire elephants, the general acquiring of elephants, and the story of Topsy make up the full book. The first chapter is a little wanting with page, after page, after page, after page after page of the phrase "would have" to describe how Topsy "would have" bee
--Rick Roche . No animals suffered more than elephants, chained together on display, vulnerable to tormentors offering peppered apples and whiskey. The elephants were always blamed. Elephant keepers, many of whom were ill-paid alcoholics, could be just as abusive, using sharp hooks instead of kind words to control their charges. T. Weaving together stories about circus rivalries and the contest between power companies to wire America, Daly recounts how a once-beloved baby elephant grew up to be condemned to a public execution using electricity, the technical innovation of the time. At a time when cockfighting was widespread, and draymen beating horses on city streets was common, mobs greeted traveling circuses to gawk at exotic beasts. As circus owners P. From Booklist Cruelty to animals was considered entertaini
Barnum and Adam Forepaugh (or 4-Paw) competing in a War of the Elephants, with declarations of whose pachyderms were younger, bigger, or more sacred”. In 1903, on Coney Island, an elephant named Topsy was electrocuted, and over the past century, this bizarre, ghoulish execution has reverberated through popular culture with the whiff of urban legend. But it really happened, and many historical forces conspired to bring Topsy, Thomas Edison, and those 6600 volts of alternating current together that day. Tracing them all in Topsy The Startling