The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-02
A Lion Tanners Control Over Savage Beasts.

A curious history, and one that sheds many
CLEANS Of light upon the character OF beasts In
the menagerie, is that of Henri Martin, the lion
tanner, who died, 90 years old, quietly at his
home, among his collection of butterflies and
his books of botany Martin, according to his
own letters, began to cultivate his gift of control
over animals in the days when he was connected
with a circus, by acquiring an extraordinary
power over horses, which he taught every trick
known to The profession. and some which have
hardly been exactly paralleled. From this he
went on to tanning wild beasts, and soon after he
had started business as part proprietor of a men,
agerie he had labored eight months in training a
royal Tiger and had taught a spotted hyena to
pick up his gloves: -wdss Rover seen with a
whip in his hand; but he crossed his arms and
gave his animals the word Of command to leap en-
and off his shoulders, and he considered his
method Infinitely superior to that of the trainers
who go through their business chiefly by the ter
rorism OF a heavy whip and a revolver. Their
beasts obey them, but, he said, Z" they are not
tanned as mine were, and when one of them rebels
you can judge the tragic result from the tragIcal
end of Lucas.
One day Martin told his wife that he antici-
pated trouble with his lion Cobourg, who was
then in II dangerous state of excitement. She
begged him to put off the performance, but he
said, " No for if | should do it once. | should
have to do it every time the animals have Gu
prices The next night his forebodings we're
fulfilled. Instead of performing his part properly
Cobourg crouched low and dug his talons into
the stage, and his eyes fared. Martin had no
weapon at command except a dagger in his belt
" have said never a whip" Instead Of obeying
orders the lion leaped at Martin and a combat
occurred, in the course of which the lion took
Martin up in his mouth and shook him in the air.
Martin struck the animal over the nose for a sec
ond time, and then, feeling his strength exhausted
gave himself up for lost and turned his back to
the beast. SO that at the next spring it might at
- L l. = 4
of the business. But two seconds
passed-two seconds that seemed TO me an eter-
nifty. | turned around; the lions mood had
changed. lie looked at the audience he looked
at me. | gave the sign to go. He went away
as if nothing had happened
1t was fourteen weeks before Martin could per-
form again. but then the lion worked as well as
usual, and continued to do 50 for four years with
out any more caprices. In tanning one of his
tigers Martin began by taking the brute's atten-
ton off the door of the cage. and then, armed
with a dagger, went rapidly INTO the cage and
stood looking at the tiger, which, for sDne min
utes. lay motionless, staring at him. Then, feel
ing a shiver, and knowing that if the tiger saw it
all would be over with him, he went swiftly out.
At tie end of a fortnight he went again into the
cage, and this time stayed there half an hour. A
third time he paid the tiger a. visit of three
quarters Of an hour. The fourth time the tiger,
trembling at first, lay down before the pigmy
who braved it," To tame a hyena, Martin
wrapped his legs and arms with cords and'pro-
tected his head with handkercbiefs, and then,
walking into the cage, went straight to the ami
NAL and offered it his forearm. The hyena bit it,
and the tanner. looking steadily into its eyes,
stood motionless. The next day he repeated the
experiment, substituting a leg for an arm. 81 and
all the time Martins black pupils were flashing
into the gray eyes of the Hyena. The beast gave
up, eringed and smelled the feet of the master. ="
Martin tanned his subjects by his personal in
huence alone, and Charles Nodier once said of
him At the head of an army Martin might
have been a Bonaparte. Chance has made a man
of genius a director. of a menagerie.-Erchdnge