This tragic tale from the January 29, 1897 Brooklyn Daily Eagle has it all: a dealer of animals with poor judgement, a drunken trick elephant, a killer python, etc. An excerpt:

“The desire for strong drink indirectly added another victim to the long list of those who have died from such causes yesterday morning. The deceased, however, does not belong to the genus homo, but is a young elephant from Burmah, aged 18 months, owned by W.A. Conklin, an animal dealer of 40 Vesta Avenue. The elephant’s name was Baby, and he was a trick elephant.

For some time past he had been suffering with a severe cold, for which he was treated by Keeper Frank Gleason with generous doses of quinine and whiskey, the medicine being kept in a large demijohn in the room with Baby. Baby soon became very fond of his medicine, and, shortly after midnight this morning broke his chain and attacked the demijohn, emptying it in short order. It was not long before he became quite joyous, and, in his peregrinations, upset and broke into the snake cage, containing two large Indian pythons. One of those reptiles resented the elephant’s assault and attacked the  beast, and after a short struggle succeeded in injuring it to such an extent that it died about a half hour later. The struggle also caused the snake’s death.

Keeper Gleason yesterday sent the elephant’s body to B.G. Wilder, at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., to be mounted and the skeleton articulated. The snake’s skin will adorn the wall of a Brooklyn shop.”