The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-04
ALL ABOUT LION TANNING.
What n Scared Veteran ut the Business
Told n Reporter.

What n Scared Veteran Mt the Business
Told n Reporter.
A lion tanner, with forty-two reminis-
cences of encounters with the beasts on
his face, neck, back, breast and limbs,
lives at 545 Hudson street, New York.
He is barely thirty-three years of age,
is of fair complexion, has brown hair and
mustache, and is of robust build. His
eye is quick and searching; and, without
intending any reflection upon the cour-
age of the king of the forest, it may
truthfully be said that Frank P. Lawson
is Drawer than a lion. Within the past
ten years, nearly all the showmen and
almost every lion in America have been
introduced to Lawson. Owing to the
fact that this has been a bad season for
circuses and menageries, and more
especially to the fact that at the present
day showmen are not able or willing to
pay lion exhibitors adequate wages,
Lawson wa not in a den of lions on the
evening that a New York SIN reporter
visited him. He gave the reporter some
interesting information in regard to his
dangerous calling.
Lawson first made the acquaintance of
the lion by scraping the dens. This was
when he was travelling with James
Nixon's Niblo's Garden circus. Later,
while employed in Adam Forepaugh's
m~enagerie, Col. Hall the tanner, was in
iured, and Lawson took his place. The
show was in Philadelphia at the time.
Hall had been in a den with two lions
and two tigers, and there had been a
terrible fight among the animals, in the
course of which Hall had been bitten on
the shoulder. It was the first time that
performing lions and tigers had been put
together in any American menagerie.
Lawson had been in the dens before,
but, when he undertook to run this
quartet, he was almost disheartened.
For nearly three weeks he fought them
daily, and was scratched and torn until
he scarcely recognized himself in the
looking glass. At last he succeeded in
training them to dovarious tricks, but he
never trusted them. Forepaugh became
dissatisfied with the almost constant
quarreling of the beasts, and they were
finally put in separate dens. Col. Hall
never recovered from his wounds.
Lawson remained four years with
Forepaugh as the superintendent Of the
geological department Of the show. In
the winters he vas employed in "break-
ing" or training, the animals. -Four
lions or lionesses constitute a den. eff
they were young lions" continued Law
son, "I used to 60 into the den every
morning with q broom and sweep the
floor. Then the youngsters crouched in
a corner, and l brushed them with the
broom. This they did not like at first,
but they gradually became used to see
ing me, and skipped around Inc like kit
tens. I taught them their places in the
dens SO that there might be NJ misunder-
standing between us. Each had his own
place, but one of them was boss over the
others. This one became my special pet
and assistant. Sometimes, however, he
rebelled against my authority, but I al
ways brought him to terms. If he OF
others became warlike, I clipped the
claws of their fore paws to the quick,
and this took the fight out of them at
once. To trim the claws was no easy
job. I was compelled to catch the fore
legs in a slip-noose and throw the AMI
NAL down then, while he was held
down by the men outside the cell, I did
the clipping. I never clipped a lion a
second time. It makes them timid, and
destroys their lion nature.
"Col. Thomas Davis was cut almost
to death in alen in French's circus in
Chicago, and T was called in to break
the animals. I found it necessary to cut
the claws. If the lion is six or seven
years old and has never been handled,
he must be chummed with a trained
lion, the pet of the den. Then there is
sure to be an awful fight. They will
claw and bite each other for two weeks
or more. If the pet is the victor, that
settles it. I can easily master the van
pushed one. But, if the petis defeated,
then the conqueror must be dragged
down and burned on the paws with hot
irons. The lions roars ut such times
can be heard three blocks off. I stand
in the den with a loaded rawhide and
pound him on the forehead and on the
nose. 1t wouldn't do for me to hit him
on the side or back. I have four assis-
tants in attendance outside the den with
iron bars to protect Inc, but I do all the
talking-in fact, I yell at the top of my
voice. I constantly repeat the same
words which I nm to use in exhibiting
the lion. Anybody "a beat O lion when
he is tied down the dangerous thing is
to enter the den and beat him when he
is not tied. On such occasions l beat
the animal fast and swift on the fore
head and nose with the loaded whip.
Lions have stood before me like statues
while I pounded them thus. I, of course,
keep up a furious yelling. But there is
danger of overriding it, and then your
risk is great.
"Much has been said about transfixing
or terrifying a lion by looking into his
eyes. l know all about that. Catch his
eye and fix yours upon him, his eyeballs
slowly begin to expand and he becomes
blind. Then he will turn his head so
that he may recover his vision. Look
out for yourself at such q time. When
he faces around again be ready to strike.
A person outside the den may stare into
the animals eyes as long as he chooses,
but an experienced lion will quickly turn
away when the keeper in the den at
tempts the use of his eyes. I never had
the slightest fear when I entered a den
and in that lies my success. When I
was cut here (pointing to a long mark
just wei his nose) the blood filled my
eyes and blinded me, but I kept on yell
ing and using my whip, and that saved
me. If I had showed a sign of weakness,
I might have been torn to pieces-prob-
ably would have been.
"Last year, on Decoration day, while
I was with Howe's & Cushing's circus, [
went with q den of lions in the process
sion in New York. Old Parker, the
famous animal who died in Central Park
sometime ago, and who left a record of
four men killed, was in the den. There
was a great crowd in the street, and as
we were turning the corner of Sixteenth
street and Fourth avenu some boys
stirred up the lionesses, and they began
to fight. I tried to stop them, and used
the whiD vigorously. Canada. an i'm