SIXTH-GENERATION ELEPHANT TRAINER PERFORMS TONIGHT

After giving Liz the elephant a bath and moisturizing Murphy's Oil Soap rubdown, trainer John Walker III went into his trailer Friday afternoon at Arena Park to change clothes for the evening's performances of the Walker Brothers Circus.

Liz promptly began tossing trunkfuls of dirt on herself.

Liz also grabbed the trigger on the garden hose and sprayed a good long drink into her trunk, then deposited the water into her mouth. Next she sprayed some surprised bystanders with the garden hose.

"I love elephants," Walker said later, meaning every word.

The 22-year-old is a sixth-generation animal trainer. One of his great-grandfathers -- he's not sure how many "greats" ago -- was part of Buffalo Bill's traveling show.

Walker's father is an elephant trainer and his mother specializes in exotic animals. Now divorced, she has a show she calls "Noah's Ark" in a Mexican circus.

Walker and his brother, Jason, a juggler, now operate the family circus. They have two more elephants besides Liz -- Maude and Delhi. Maude is known for preferring her peanuts shelled instead of whole the way most elephants eat them. She shells them herself.

"Elephants are very smart," Walker says.

A young one can be completely trained within a year. "For the rest of their life they never stop learning -- just like us," Walker says.

They also like to eat -- 600 pounds of hay and assorted other good sources of fiber a day.

An elephant sometimes will eat a water hose that's left out, too, but Walker blames the trainer and not the elephant. "This is their earth."

The circus performs 290 days a year and two shows a day when not wintering in Sarasota, Fla. Unlike the big circuses that play buildings and may stay a week in one place, the Walker Brothers Circus is a family show that starts every day at 4:30 a.m. and ends it at 11:30 p.m.

"This is where `The show must go on' came from," Walker says.

The circus performed twice Friday and will give two more performances at 5:30 and 7:30 tonight. Proceeds benefit the Shriner's Club causes.

Entertaining children who come to the circus are the newly re-formed Cape Girardeau Shrine Club Clowns, an organization that had been inactive for years. There are 12 clowns who perform for Shrine Club events and for private parties.

Larry Ream, who goes by the clown name Rocco, was at the circus Friday afternoon in the traditional garb of baggy pants and huge tie. Alongside was George Peo, also known by the clown name Train Man.

Ream's daughters, who are 22 and 18, are philosophical about having a clown for a dad. "They said I finally found my position in life," Ream said.