The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-07-09

Strange Friendships.
A wild animal, when free. seldom
makes friends with q different kind of
animal but the most savage beast,
cooped up in q little cage, will Office
become greatly attached to some weak
little creature which il would have
scorned to notice when free. Just how
animals make friends with each other
and make the fact known il is hard
even to guess. But they do it some
how, and two strange animals will come
to enjoy each others society SO much
that they cannot bear to be separated
1t is often noticed in menageries that
| elephants will make friends with dogs.
and lie perfectly miserable without
| them
Lions, too, are often known to forget
their savage nature, and lavish affec-
ton on animals as unlike themselves as
it is possible to be. There is a noble
looking lion at the Central Park
Menagerie who has only disdain for the
men and women and children who stare
at him, and indeed which would be only
too glad of the chance to eat one OF
them, but which has allowed his affec-
tons to be won by lot of tiny En-
glish sparrows. If you were to put
your hand in the cage to stroke his
tawny skin, no matter how good your
intentions might be, he would tear it in
shreds with his terrible paw; and yet
he seems to enjoy having the birds hop
all over him. Sometimes the fearless
little creatures will perch almost on his
very nose, as if to show how impudent
they could be. But whatever they do,
the royal captive only watches them
with a sort of sleepy good-nature that
seems to say that the birds may do as
they please.
In the Geological Gardens at Paris
they used to have a fierce young lion
whose only friend was poor little dog
which had one day sneaked into the
menagerie, and, when pursued, had
leaped into the lions cage, where, to
the establishment of the keepers, he
was cordially received. Perhaps the
lion saw that the little dog and himself
had the same enemy in common. How
ever that may be, the lion adopted the
dog for his dear friend, and would not
allow him to be taken away.
One morning, before any visitors had
come, fortunately, the gate of the lions
cage was carelessly left unfastened and
the lion contrived to push it open and
spring out. 1t is easy to imagine the
confusion and terror that followed.
The keepers fed for safety, and the
great beast was truly monarch of the
place. The first thought was to shoot
him at once, but one of the more
shrewd keepers proposed plan for re-
capturing him. This man had noticed
that the little dog had remained behind
in the cage; so he stole up behind the
cage, and, catching hold of the poor
little fellow, began to whip him. OF
course the dog howled piteously. At
the first sound of the dogs voice the
lion, which had been angrily flashing its
tail against its sides in front of tigers
cage, stopped and listened. As the
howls continued, the mighty beast
bounded savagely toward his cage, and
seeing the keeper beating his friend
leaped in. The gate was instantly
closed and fastened, and the lion found
that his friendship had cost him his
liberty. The quick witted keeper was
richly rewarded, and to make up for
his beating the little dog was made q
pet of, and fed on the choicest bits of
meat.
sometimes the captive animals will
have a strong affection for their keep
ers or trainers, but as a rule their
Obedience proceeds from fear and not
from affection. One case of such an
Affection however, is, worth repeating.
A trainsr had cage of animals, into
which he was accustomed to- go and
perform with the animals-fo<lr leop-
ards and a lion. The lion was fine
beast, and we'll trained, but surfy and
difficult to control One day, when the
man entsred the cage, the lion was very
fierce, and refused to performA The
man spoke sternly, but the liDn only
crouched in one corner of the cage and
growled angrily. The trainer then
raised his whip and struck the beast a
smart blow In another instant the
angry creature had sprung upon the
daring man, and would have killed him
had no1the four leopards CONS to the
rescue, and bravely taken the hons at
tention until some Oh the keepers came
and rescued the fainting man.. One of
the lespards died from the wounds in
ficted by the lion, and the others
could never be induced again to per-
form with the savage beast. The an
nails OF menageries are full OF similar
storieo of friendships between different
animals and between animals. and men,.
-Hayper's Young People.