Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-08-11

came back with them TO this country,
and travelled with them for two years -
a salary of 800 a week. One Gay w.
the circus was performing IN TINS cry y
/ fell down while passing from the o'e ~
/ mgr room to the ring and dlea on 'no
spot, of heart disease, It was thought
1 While Crockett was still travelling
/ with Sancer's circus in England MI
/ ton. the manager of rival show, 10
counterbalance the formers attractions
I brought out his daughter as non
queen" She made hcr first appearance
in Stepney fair, and he spectacle becane
so attractive that other shows immed-
ately initiated it. Edmunds, the pre-
prietor of one of the three menagerles
( into which the famous COLLECTION OF
( Wombwel was divided on the death OF
the original proprietor in 1850, brought
out Miss Chapman as a rival to MISS
/ Hilton with his lions and leopards. Miss
Chapman was a lady of very fine nerve,
and performed so successfully that she
was requested to give a special appear
ance before the royal family. Her sue
cess brought out a third lion queen. MISS
Helen Blight, whose career was short
and its end most painful. She was per
forming at Greenwich fair one day
when a tiger showing some sullenness,
she very impudently struck him with
small whip which she carried. The
enraged beast Immediately sprang at her
! throat with hoarse roar, and killed her
1 before she could be rescued. The eX-
citement aroused by this melancholy
affair caused the performance of lion
queens TO be forbidden in England by
/ the lord chancellor, but they have since
4 appeared several times in this country
/ Macomo was a negro lion king, who
/ became famous far and wide. lie was
one of the most daring performers ever
, known, and many stories are told OF his
remarkable pluck and fearlessness. He
once entered a cage where two tigers
were fighting furiously, and, armed with
whip, attempted to separate them.
Both beasts turned upon him and tore
/ him with their sharp claws; but, covered
with blood as he was. he continued
to lash them with the whip until they
knew him for their master, and COW
cred before him. This was not the only
occasion in which Macomo received
wounds, the marks Of which he bore to
the grave. All who saw him perform be
lieved that one day he would be killed,
but he seemed, like Van Amburgh and
Crockett. to bear charmed life, and he
died a natural death in 1870. 1t is worth
noting that these three most successful
on-kings were alike in one particular
they all abstained wholly ftom intoXica-
ting liquors.
1t was confessed by many performer,
who has not been wise enough to follow
their example, that the use of strong
drink greatly increases the peril Of their
performances. The temptation is great
to strengthen the nerves with a glass of
brandy, but the tendency of such stimu-
lus is to make the performer reckless, and
inclined to do rash things with the beasts
often to strike them, which is most
dangerous thing to do. This was the
case with the successor of MacOmO, who
was an Irishman named Mccarthy. In
1912 he had his left arm so mangled by
the beasts-aroused, as he admitted after
ward, bya hasty blow-that he had to
have it amputated. He continued to per
form with the animals, for the fact of his
having but one arm added to his attrac-
tiveness, and he was we'll paid. But he
could not abstain from liquor. and this
with the recklessncss induced by it,
caused his death.
He was giving at Bolton a sensational
performance called on-hunting, intro
duced by Macomo, which consists in
chasing the animals about the cage, the
performer armed with a sword and PTS
tolls, and making the sport appear as
much like real hunt as possible. 1t is
known that this exhibition excites the
beasts so much that it is very dangerous.
In this case Mccarthy had driven the an
imals into corner, and then he walked
to the center of the cage and stamped his
feet to make them run past him again.
His back was turned to the beasts, and
one of the lions crept stealthily from the
group and sprang upon him. The others
followed, and it was only after a long
struggle on the part of the keepers and
the use of blows with hot irons that the
torn and mangled body of the dead per-
former could be taken from the enraged
beasts.