The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-04
right over his teeth and held him with q

Irm grip.
SIN feeding lions at the exhibitions I
never give them enough to let them
waste time in chewing. If did it would
be fatal to me. I throw them little
scraps, and as soon as they masticate
these L stand ready with my whip and
whack them over the nose. The lioness
Nellie, owing to sickness, could not eat
meat, and 1 performed what seemed to
be a very wonderful trick with her. I'd
take a great chunk of meat and hold it
before her. She'd grasp it out of spite,
and then we would have q seemingly
frantic struggle for its possession. When
T became the winner the applause was
always hearty and prolonged. The other
lions watched the tusslc with deep inter
est, and craved the meat, but 1 kept
them at bay. We always feed them raw
beef. Liver acts upon them just rs pills
10 upon human beings.
"In making an exit from q den [ in
variably go from the door in the center
partition. The worst of the animals
are first shut in the end partition, and [
part from the pet in the second section.
Lionesses are a hundred per cent. more
treacherous than lions. The majority of
the lion tanners who have been killed III
dens were dru TX at the time. But not
all of them. There was poor Joe Whit
tie, who was with John O'Brien's circus
in 1874. He went into a den and caught
a lion by the nose, and attempted the
novel feat of tossing the animal about.
Joe was terribly mangled, and we all
sorrowed over his death.
con July 4 of last year I was per-
forming in a den on the public square in
Fall River. / was feeding tie animals.
Old Parker had a habit of resting on his
stomach and putting his claws out of the
cage. Charley Wilson, my assistant,
was close to the cage. I warned him
away, but he did not go. Suddenly Old
Parker reached for him and tore the top
of his head off. T fought hard to rescue
Charley, and Old Parker turned and hit
Inc in the right side. My other assistant
used scrapers in fighting him back, and
Big Dave, one of the showmen, hit him
in the back with q bar of iron. AS Old
Parker turned I jumped out of the den.
Charley Wilson died soon afterward.
Old Parker killed a mar in Astley's
Theater, in London, one night. The old
lion and the younger nes got looce from
their cage, and the man who discovered
them, instead of calling the keeper, IN
dertook himself to drive the animals
back. Old Parker finished him in short
metre.
"Prescnce of mind is the most essen
tial thing for a lion tanner. When I was
feeding the animals once, and was sitting
on a stool in the den, I was amazed be-
cause Old Parker lazily crouched on the
floor. I kicked backward at him, and
he fastened his jaws on the calf Of my
log. If I had moved a muscle he would
have crushed the leg. As it was, he
soon relaxed his hold, and. I made no
fuss about it, having gone right on feed
ing the other lions all the time. This
cut on my throat I received in a den in
French's.circus in Chicago.
cit isn't the report of q pistol" Law
son continued, "that frightens q lion
it is the little grains of powder and salt
that nip him IN the launches when the
tanner bangs away at him in the den.
The smoke obscures everything for a
minute, but the tanner must be ready to
use his whip when the smoke clears
away.
"Lion tanners used to receive from $50
to $75 a week. Now they are offered
1913 or $50 a week, as though VIC were
ready to risk urlives for such miserable
pay as that. I, for one, am not but I
miss the society of my lions"