The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-12-06
TANNING WILD ANIMALS.
How Lions and Tigers nre Tamed-The
Secrets of a Dangerous Profession.

Al
terviewed tanner of wild animals with
the following interesting result: Ac-
cording to the best beast trainers, no
wild beast can ever be trusted, not even
the so-called "noble" lion. They are
all treacherous, the females generally
being more deceitful and dangerous than
the males. The ioness is more difficult
to manage than the lion, the tigress than
the tiger. Kindness-that is anything
but ordinary kindness or "civility is
absolutely thrown away upon wild
beast. It has occasionally some little
effect upon lion, but really very sci.
| dom, the lion being really surly and
treacherous brute, all lion stories and
talk to the contrary Notwithstanding.
But with a tiger, and especially IT,
gress. all affection is literally wasted. A
tigress is as likely to eat you up after
six years of attention on her as after SIX
days, if she only fancies she is safe III SO
doing. In all professional intercourse
with wild animals you must depend on
fear-only absolute fear. Let the beasts
know that you can and will beat them
when they deserve it and they will not
hurt you.
Never trust them for moment. Keep
your eye on them all the time-not that
your eve alone will have any effect upon
them. All these stories in books about
"eyeing animals" into submission and
the power of the human eye over the
brute creation are sheer fabrications.
AMI as a rule the whip is the most efh-
cacious of instruments in training OF
subduing wild beast. 1t can be used
quickly and at once, and it hurts every
time. So the beasts learn to dread 1t
even more than gun-more than any
thing save red hot bar of iron or fire.
81 depend more on my whip when ! 60
in among my tigers, said the reporter s
informant, ethan upon myself. Ii l
we're to drop my whip the peas's would
fancy had lost all my power, and
would pounce first upon the whip, then
upon me. would consider the drop
ping of my whip while in the cage with
my animals as almost q fatal calamity.
"To train a wild animal" said Mr..
Still, "you must first make his or her
acquaintance from the outside, doing
chores around the cage and getting the
animals acquainted with your face and,
above all, with your voice. They re-
member voices more acutely than they
do faces; they are governed more by
sound than by sight. Once had a
beast in my cage that had not seen me
in my red suit that I wear when per-
forming. When I entered with it on the
brute did not recognize me and would
undoubtedly have sprung on me and
torn me to pieces had I not shouted to
her in my ordinary tone of voice. She
remembered me ct once and skunk down
submissive.
"The trainer feeds his beast and gives
them water. These acts give him no
hold on their gratitude, but they serve
to render his face, form and voice
familiar. They serve as an introduction
to tiger society. But you must always
watch your beasts we'll, whether outside
or inside the cage. In fact, I think, y
said Mr.. Still, "that you are most in
danger when on the outside. You do
not realize their proximity-and they do
not realize Sours-they have not quite
the same fear of your whip when separ-
ated from you by the bars, and so they
are ready to 'go for you at any moment.
The four tigresses here at the circus
have bitten repeatedly people who came
too near their cages. One young man,
doing chores around the cage not long
ago, was seized by the hair of the head
by one of the beasts and nearly scalped.
Another had his arm broken by a
wrench.
"Ha7ving got accustomed to your
beasts and your beasts accustomed to
you, your next step is to train them to
do their tricks. These tricks are very
simple, but they require good deal Of
time and a good deal of whipping to ac-
complish.
"The lions are the smartest of the
wild beasts. You can train lion to do
the ordinary tricks in traae-jumping
through hoops and over gates, standing
on hind legs, and 80 on-in about five
weeks constant work. In this timetable
OF wild beasts you can estimate that it
would take a ioness about a week
longer, and leopard, which comes next
in Intelligence to lion, about six weeks
to learn the same feats. The tiger
would take about seven or eight weeks,
tigress about eight or nine weeks,
while you can keep on beating and
teaching hyena for about four months
before you can do much with him.
"The most difficult feat of all to teach
wild beast is to teach him how to let
YOU lie on him without his eating you.
I do this every night with one of the t.
crosses, but she don't like it bit,
though she keeps quiet enough, for it
aggravates her inwardly.
"The great secret Of tiger tanning and
all wild beast tanning" continued the ti-
ger tanner, "lies in the whipping of the
animals-knowing Just when to whip
them-and just how much. You must
keep them well whipped, but if you whip
them either too little or too much, or
whip them without cause, it may be
fatal. As for positively tanning wild
beast you can't do it-especially tiger.
One or two men may have more or less
influence over an animal, but no one is
absolutely safe with them, and no wild
beast was ever absolutely tanned. Food
makes but little difference with any wild
beast as to its natural ferocity, and with
tiger it makes none at all. My ami
mails would tear man limb from limb
after full meal just for the fun of the
thing. On the other hand I would just
as lief enter their cage before meal as
after it; in fact, I do enter it to perform
inst before feeding time in the afternoon.
Once was obliged to keep them with