The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-02-08
Revelations Of a Lion Tanner.

AT uIS6 The tongue OF Tie tanner
was pretty closely tied touching mat
tiers of his profession, but in due time
he expanded into talk when he saw
the genuine enthusiasm Of the keeper
for all that related to the subject, yet
naturally practiced strict reserve in
everything concerning his particular
work. In word, professional secrets
remained entombed.
He thought men were born to his
vocation, and there was no resisting
it. He had followed shows and hung
around lion cages when he was a boy.
Toward manhood the business had ex-
ercised such fascination that he at
last obtained employment with a
tanner, whom he followed until he was
killed by his beasts. This sanguinary
spectacle deferred him for the time
from the idea of entering cage, but
he continued his work.
There were two kinds of lions in
the menageries-those born and raised
in the cages and those caught as
whelpS wild in Asia and Africa. A
few full grown were caught in pits.
The first time he entered a cage was
in a small show in a provincial town.
The two lions whom he then encOun-
tered were old and sick, and bore the
scars of twenty years whipping on
their bald hides; besides, they were
born and brought up behind the bars.
They growled from force of habit, but
there was not much danger in them.
The posters of course announced the
two brutes as two of the most fero-
cious kings of the forest.
From these he passed to cage-bred
lions in their prime, thence to the
wild animals, of which Brutus was
one. Until the tanner was able to
work with these last, he was not con-
sidered as belonging to the rank Of
real tanners. The sensation he expe-
rienced the first time he entered the
cage of wild animals was difficult to
describe; it was an appreciation OF
imminent danger coupled with cour-
age. When he issued from the cage
his tights and spangled cloth felt as
it they had just come out of the wash
tub. He was steeled up to the point
of bravery before the brutes, but ten
minutes afterward a child could have
knocked him over.
The principal secret Of managing
the brutes was not to be afraid Of
them. When the man showed fear he
was lost. The mastery was not
acquired so much through violence of
treatment, as an absolute sense of
security in their presence. Audacity
and self-possession were necessary
every minute, every second; a
moments loss of equilibrium might
prove fatal.
The buttery mode of treatment
about which bookmen wrote had
no existence in fact among showmen.
No man managed his beasts with
kindness. When his Brutus licked
his face in his performance it looked
affecJionate, but it was not; he did it
because he was afraid; and when the
animal went through this .osculatory
business he was obliged to keep his
eye on him with all the concentration
of his will, for there was something in
the beasts eyes which showed that he
would sooner use his teeth than his
tongue.
once tampd is tanned FOR GOOD 90 .
horse ia broken to harne.s Th;s wos
an error; the lion had to be tanned
every day anew in order to keep him
in snhiection
Founders astad him IL bo moo,,+ ~
.av that oil l;ona waro u;c;o,,s ~
witch ha answorad nero+;uain Tharo
,yoro e,ood i;o,,s amd hed 49, ;,,.t -
tharo e svoro 1900 aood and Nod ,nsn '1'S Tho
had heasts howavor rara nore
onmeroms than tba otbars for q MOS
mar = ot,,ro 10 Lii ~ rroy;do for +h u"
hrnaar Tha hont tait IL ah H. ~ t eo
was NOT trnatwortnv. ' tha
Instinct ~ the beast wac 't 10 Iii III whan
\ was bnnorv b,t yhan b;s stor,aoh
was fnil Is was Lose dannarons IL
bad coon tho haast IN ;ts Wild s+o+a
,au , M hmntsJ hin, IN Afr;c. ~
nod oen+,raS Pr,,tns thara o., ,vh.,, ~
nina, nj, waa two vears old he was
hon +an hit o,wsvs rota;nod sou w.
.h;nn ~ bic wild na+,,ra IL ua.
, i ! III w;+h b;s nothar ~ az
"other ha;na sbot W ~ '''o
In anothar menaoor;a with wb;ch
n had heon ennnoetad bic nr;nc;na1
,e y f, anca NO. .etbo bannv fano;1r :,
Z, I, ; ha To- o t t"py :; H.
aroe oaas t,vo ,;ons sovors1 1 ra,ras 'n
'onnle 81 hears 3 sheen and : ANAL
.ia,Io,,t ,v;th n,onLaw r. h;s haaL
M, H c,a ~is eaa+,,ra ~ th;s .,.a -.
70 Az ~ y *,'a .I :. .''I a. So
uoA OuuOeAVA u vAiO oihooP ACou nlSO