The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

Mrs. Schmitt and the Polar Bear.

" Mrs. Schmitt," we read in the Gazette des Tri.
bunaux, " is not obliged to go into the white bear's
cage." This announcement, which must afford great
satisfaction to Mrs. Schmitt's friends, commences
the report of a suit that has just been heard before
the Tribunal of Commerce of the Seine, and which
is headed with the words--" The Ferocious Animals
of the Hippodrome.—The White Bear and Mrs.
Schmitt." It appears from the proceedings that the
success of Crockett the lion-tamer had fired Arnault,
the director of the Paris Hippodrome, with a noble
emulation, and he resolved to serve up live wild
beasts to his intelligent audiences. He had heard of
a menagerie at Ghent, kept by Mr. Schmitt, and
comprising four lions, two black bears, two hyenas,
and a white bear, all warranted ferocious. He
succeeded in bringing this savage collection to
Paris, together with one Hermann, the daunter of
beasts, whom all Paris has seen since then paying
friendly visits to the animals in their dens, and
taking the white bear's supper into the cage whew
he lived in solitude. People began to get used to
this, and it occurred to the enterprising Arnault
that it would be a seductive novelty if a woman
could be got to venture upon the same familiarities
with the captive monsters, An agreement was
signed with Mrs. Schmitt, who, not less
valiant than graceful, accepted a sum of 4,000
francs to appear at the Hippodrome for a fort-
night and to enter the cage of the combined
animale--that is to say, of the lions, hyenas, and
black bears, who all lived together. Mrs. Schmitt
stoutly performed her part of the agreement, but
the manager wished her also to visit the Polar
bear, which she refused on the grounds that he was
not set down in the bond. Hence a double lawsuit,
in which the lady came off with flying colours. In
the course of the trial some indiscreet revelations
were made by the manager's advocate, calculated
much to discourage that eccentric John Bull who,
according to a current tradition in France, con-
tinually attends exhibitions of this class in hopes
of seeing some exasperated lion or irritable bear
make a meal of the tamer. The white bear, it was
declared, is gentle as a lamb, and only formidable
in the bills of the performance, consequently Arnault
did not seek to expose Mrs. Schmitt to the least
danger. It was known to all the people employed
at the Hippodrome that when Mr. Hermann went
into the cage with the supper, grooms, with rods
which were concealed from the public, pushed the
pieces of meat away from the bear, so as to excite
the animal to signs of impatience and pretended
anger. Mr. Heimann, in the absence of the public,
was in the habit of smoking his cigar in the cage,
without paying the least attention to the bear, and
his keeper, Jacob, used to let the gentle inhabitant
of the Polar regions take sugar from between his
teeth like a dog—a degree of gentleness on the part
of a bear which certainly did not justify Mrs.
Schmitt's pretended terrore, and the real cause of
her refusal, it was alleged, was a wish to keep up
Martin the bear's usurped reputation of ferocity.
The Court, however, considered the lady's case to
be made out, and sentenced Arnault to pay the
4,000 f. with costs.

An American Paper states that the oldest of
three brothers residing in Moltonboro', New Hampshire,
married quite a young girl , his next younger brother mar-
ried the girl's mother, and the younger took for hie wife
the grandmother.