The daily gazette., 1880-03-06
A Tirer Story
BY 8. W. D.


at Baltimore, a German lad, Dswllose
parents had died of fever on the ,yoy-
age out. The lad pleased me, for he
had an honest face, and seemed lre-
spectacle. At first ! employed him
for light work-carrying cut, bills, and
so on but as he possessed an undaunt-
ed temper and subduing eye, I in
structed him, and ere long lie made
the wolves spring through the hoop,
SO that it was a pleasure to see him. o
George-that was his name---prom,
ised to grow into most athletioman I;
and at the same time he was true as
steel, and did his teacher honor in
every respect, so that felt real friend,
ship for him. =,
At that time I had, as assistant, an
Irishman, called Mike, brutal fell
low, whom was obliged to reduce to
the post of butcher of the mepagerie,
because he was given to drink, and in
a drunken fit savagely put out the eye
of q perfectly tame cheetah. -,
This fellow had q. secret malice
egainst1 George, tbeeause~ the latter
from this time, took his place with
great applause as second performer.
Had l known what an utter villain
this Mike, was, / would have dismissed
him on the spot but as 1t was, 4 could
not well do without him, because he
was well versed in the management
of the animals, and an inexperienced
man might have done them great in
jury. "a tUGGElT -
At THIS period We had a Bengal IT,
gress Of the name of Flora, whose
training had cost me much time and
trouble. or course you are aware that
female animals are much more difficult
to tame, because we are unable to use
several methods which we. employ
with males. Hence / did not like to
see George enter her cage, for / really
considered her the most dangerous
beast in the wh9leImenagefie. he was
ambitious, however, and Earnestly i'm
plored me- to Let him have the entire
training of her; probably, too, the
brave young fellow would have met
with no misfortune had not Mike
thrust his Internal hand into the af-
fair. Yes, this handwas blood stained,
too, audi unhappily experienced this
in my own case, when t was almost
too late for me.
We were at Charleston, when
George, at the close of the perform
ance, entered the cage of. the tigress
10 make Ihef 20 lthropgh the leaps
taught her, while I was accidentally
employed in a distant part of the me-
nagerie.
a All at, once ! heard q roar, which, / 4
recognized as Flora's, but so different
from the usual cultural tone that my
hair stood on end. In a second I was
in front Of the cage, and saw with ohor-
rorl that Qeor9e was lying on the
Gronnd,. andlthe tigress standing over
him. She had thoroughly scalped
him with one blow of her fore paw and
broken his neck. yhe1'H
All my men were shrieling and run
ming about frantically, while Mike, at
my shout, brought me a rifle. Ipull-
ed the trigger, but the gun missed
fire. What was to be done? No one
could help the young fellow. for it was
evident that, he was dead but it was
my duty to veshis.corpse from furth-I
er laceration. '' ''f"T
The brute, who was intimidated by
my voice, and glance, did not dare TO
continue her murderous work, but
Withdrew, gnashing her teeth, into the
furthest corner of the cage, where she
licked Der bloody paw, and took greedy
glancss at the body. i
When Mike brought up another gurs
l ordered him to shoot the tigress at,
the first movement she made, and then
ran round the long row Of. vans to en-
ter her. cage from sbehinds- ,.-f,-,..i
u narmed asIwas, Iopened the gate,
stepped in, and seized the still warm
body of my friend, which I removed
without further laceratioh. Myifirst
thought then was to kill Flora, but l
soon altered my mind, and resolved,
although the beast would now be'doub-!
ly dangerous, to show her that / was
her lord and master. intended to
treat her in such a way that she should /
forget insubordinatioh forever and a
day. IT Il IL III J. -,
After burying my friend respect
ably, / sailed with the menagerie to
Havana, where the authorities grant
ed me the use of an unoccupied circus,
no great distance from Jacao Theatre.
Sopn after my. arrival the Captain
General sent to tell me that he intend,
ed to be present at my first perform
anoeI with the whole IF his staff. As,
you know, the, ,dops are fond Of such
lights. for they are the most eager
friends of bull-fights. -
As the other animals were perfectly
trained,,I i resolved to take Flora in
hand. and convert her cunning treach-
ery into blind obedience.~ ~''sAF p5i
1t was in the evening, after feeding
time, that intended to give her the
final lesson, so as to show her as a per-
fectly docile animal on the next day,
There was no one about the menager-
ie except Mike, who had given the
beasts their ration of meat in the after-
noon. as was his duty. ! asked him IL
all was right, aud whether the tigress
had eaten hsArdly? The lrishman re-
piled: -
IL have never known Flora to have SO
great an appetite as to-day" which satis- |
fed me, as did not catch his equtvocal |
Il stepnst into tiss. eaee ! ana saw that |
shs had q lcleaa sciAped hone between
here fore-paws;st there was something |
In her look and growhpg that struck me |
aud henceq took up my heavy whfp,tla |
handle of which Is n hfe-preserver. I |
went In and had some difficulty in get. |
pg the beasto tout of o corner, mad on toJ
her legs. BY tbreatS aRd bIow wb at \
length brought mattersso far that she
spranp through the hoop, but she con- |
siantly tr ed TO get back TO the corner, |