The Elk advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Elk Co., Pa.) 186?-1868, 1865-02-04

likewise to keep me from stumbling int
awkward proximity to some of then
and thus be made into hashed. meat.j dc
priving my father of dutiful son an,
me of beautiful goat
What other wishes I had at the time
| don't lecollect; but l do remembe
how advanced between the rows O
cages, cutting the darkness right ant
left with my lantern a sword of light
and how the strong smell of ammonia
which pervaded the atmosphere, raised
the question in my mind, whether thai
was cause Of the wild luxuriance o.
the jungle. "a
Suddenly, I was staltled from my
philosophical reverie for having neared
the far-end of the menagerie, most re.
mote from the street, l was appalled, to
behold a huge cage, wide open in front
OF me. and upon its floor, crouching, un
chained, and glaring at me, royal Ben.
| gal tiger!
l am naturally light-hearted, which is
one reason why [ have been able to
bound over numerous misfortuues, pre-.
serve my health, and become rich at
last; and perhaps the reason why I
look so much younger than l am, as so
many of my unmarried female friends
often assure me but l assure you that
at that moment did not feel like 10.
king, Nopoet, with his liver out of or.
der, his mistress out of temper, and his
publisher out of funds, could describe
my horror, TIE chill blight fmy bravery
which then took me by surprise, as if
the sensation of fear were embodied in
electricity, and darting through every
vein in my system, had wilted me all
over.
Byron says of Azo, in the poem, that
"In moment, DER his soul
Winters memory seemed to roll )"
and it is the fashion for people who have
narrowly escaped death, to say that in
the momentary crisis of peril they re-
membered all the evil deeds they had
ever committed all of which is roman
tic but unnatural and improbable for
horror, if worthy of the name, as mine
was, is too much absorbed in the con.
temptation of the present to trouble
itself about the future, and, least of all,
about the past
Memory My eyes were all before
me, when l saw that tiger and staring
directly into his, seemed to melt sud.
denly down to the floor before him, as
if had been an ice-cream, and he a
burning July sun. l fell, lantern in
hand, upon my knees, and then more
PROSTATE, as if the lower my head went,
the less notice his royal Feroclty would
take cfme. So indelibly was that pre-.
sent time impressed on my mind, to the
conclusion of any humbug memory about
the errors of the past, that. l CAM now
truly tell you how felt.
| felt, in the first place, for my Ian
tern, If the light should go out, 1
should be ushered into eternity without
seeing my way clear; and like Homer's
Ajax, who had probably been scared in
the dark when he was young, 1 wanted
all the light possible :
"lfl must perish, 1 thy will obey;
But let me perish by the lanterns
ray"
Such was one of my thoughts, so,
clutching the lantern, l looked the IT,
ger in the face, and formed very un.
favorable opinion of his physiognomic
denotements. He had language large,
but it was like the language of the birch,
easy to understand and hard to get used
to. There was unspeakable eloquence
lodged around the corners of that large
mouth, even in repose-; and how per-
suasive it might be, when open, it was
not difficult to imagine. The cru
ely receding character Of the forehead,
which | have often noticed in the Brit
ish head, implied lack of benevolence
shocking to contemplate while the
muscular development of the forepaws,
and the spread of claws, signifed
grasping nature and ability, in grim
harmony with the general aspect of the
beast; whose hide, horribly beautiful,
was the chief redeeming feature of the
picture, and seemed to glow, like molten
gold, under the light of my lantern.
BY degrees, seeing that his Bengal
Excelleney made no undue haste to
spring upon me, 1 recovered from my
partial paralysis, sufficiently to compose
my trembling limbs with less discom-
fort upon the hard floor, and to reor-
ganize my scattered powers of reason
ing; and asked myself as to the policy
of extinguishing the light. But the
thought was discarded as soon as form.
ed; for | remembered that this herculean
cat could see as we'll in the dark as in
the light, and that. singularly enough, a
fame is often terror to these fiery wild
Having, therefore, decided upon the
one point, of allowing the lantern to
burn till my light and it should be per-
haps extinguished together, I took
cursory view of the situation in other