The Opelousas courier., 1886-08-28
Dom Pedro and Leander.
BY N NEWPORT.

shut eyes, and then, with the quiet dig
nifty Of the leonine race, walked to the
opposite end of his prison, where he lay
down, with his head resting upon out
stretched paws.
with the exception ofa couple O
front teeth which we're broken off the
night he escaped he is absolutely perfect
from tip to toenail.n
s.Escapedan
"Oh, yes. Rats let him out of hi.
den one night last winter and our big
elephant, Leander, caught him and put
him back
/ looked at the ring master with as
cynical q smile as I could muster.
s'Quite an Improvement on the old
fable of the lion and the mouse, " I re-
marked.
II see You don't believe it, but it il
true, all the same. Look at this.
He drew closer to the den and placed
his hand on q corner of it which had,
apparently, been broken and then re-
paired with q sheet of half-inch iron,
firmly rivited to the heavy bars and
heavier wood floor.
ut was at this corner that he forced
his way out, and it was in tearing these
bars away that he broke his teeth. Our
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
tight-rope Walker-LiIliputlan Louis, one
of the well known Lascelles children
was responsible for it. all. He had a
little black terrier dog which was actu-
ally Q terror to rats, and nothing pleased
the boy more than to see that dog in the
centre Of . bunch Of the little pests. He
kept traps set for them all about the
stables, and when about fifty was got
together, he would invite all hands out
TO the practice ring and for half an hour
fairly revel in bloodshed. The stables
had to be cleared of the yermin in some
way, and 50 everybody rather cncour-
aged the boy.
There was q little tool box on the top
Of Pedro's den. 1t is there vel, and safe
II nailed up; and this box Louis utilized
81 d storage place for the rats while he
wa collecting enough to make . Roman
holiday.
@WeII, sir-but let's CIT down; IL
comes Just as Cheap
we took seats on the edge on d broken
band wagon, and, idly twirling q piece Of
straw, the ringmaster (ringmaster ii SUM
mel, but now boss Of the stables forming
tie circus winter quarterg went On with
his talk.
Well, FL, = he continued, ZONE night
the rats took IL into their heads to do d
little gnawing. They gnawed through the
floor 81 the box, which was, of course,
The top of pedro's dep, and one by one
slipped down through the hole into the
lions quarters. As usual, 4 slept on d
bunk N the ticket wagon, which stood
then practically where IL stands now.n
Hs pointed out the gandy ticket
wagon, as nearly in the center of the
space ID was possible To place ii, where
if commanded 4 good view Of the animal
dens ranged end to end about che stable
walls.
al about 8 o'clock in the morning I
was awakened By the lions deep growl-
ing. he had been restless all night.
Ever since II o'clock i had heard more
or less scratching in his neighborhood,
but nothing worried me until / heard
that groFI. Then ! knew something
unusual was up. / slipped out
of my bunk, and war just
turning up the fame which always
burns dinly ii & lantern near my
head, when ] heard d roar that woke
every beast ii the place; felt i shock as
though \ padded battering ram had
struck ona Of the dens, and then the
Garner 81 pearo's den gave way With 1
crash aEd / saw lis huge shape fall
ont and roll over on the saWdust.
He WIS Dill ais feet III i second, and with
smother roar, he made two bounds across
the stable and vent through thai door
there leading into the elephant house. +
thought T saw s couple Of rats running
Aaesd of nn, and ~ this day I believe