, 1886-08-05
AN ENGLISH LION TAMER's TALK.


Need of Nerve and Patlence-whcn =
Person is Clawed-Explanation.
do you mean to say, Mr.. Atherton,'
asked a reporter of the lion tanner, that
IL l were to bring you to-morrow a man
eating tiger just fresh brought over from
an Indian jungle, that you would under
take to train it to leap through hoops
and over whips, and to kiss you, and all
the rest of it, in two months?"
SIN two months from the time that the
animal was delivered to me 1 would be
able to put it through the performance
which you say. There is nothing which
you cannot do with animals if they
have got intellect and you have got
patience"
But is it not frightfully dangerous
Dangerous? Yes, il you nave not got
nerve, and do not know how to handle
an animal; but if you have nerve and
keep your eye IN his, and go the right
way about it, you never need fear any
thing. l would not hesitate to enter the
room in which the widest animal ever
brought to this country was at large. l
ave again and again entered a cage in
which a lion or a tiger has been I'M
chained which had never been broken
in before. A wild animal that has not
yet been broken for the show business
never flies at you. When you enter the
cage it will show its teeth and growl
and perhaps strike at you with its claws;
but If you keep your eye upon it and
take care that it does not attack you
from behind you are safe. No doubt it
will claw you, as these cheetahs clawed
me many times; but here Is n wrinkle if
you eve happen to be tete-a-tete with
a cheetah or any animal of the cat tribe.
When you are clawed, and you feel the
animals hooked talons enter your flesh,
don't jump back, but go forward. If you
jump back the claws will tear away the
flesh; whereas if you 90 forward the
animals claws only make n prick"
How do you explain the fact that
these ferocious carnivora do not spring
at you in n room as they would spring
at you in a jungle?"
well, in the first case, most wild ami
mails are bred in captivity, and as much
accustomed to the sight of a man as a
dog or a cat. But take the case of a wild
tiger trapped in a jungle. Well, the tiger
is ferocious chiefly when the tiger is hun
cry. If a man has got a f%ull-grown tiger
and sends it home from India, he is not
such a fool rs to allow the tiger to go
fasting all the way. The tiger is a mar
ketable commodity, which will fetch 100
pounds sterling in the market. If you
have got 100 pounds sterling in an ami
NAL, you take care it does not want its
dinner. On the contrary, you will give
it as much as it will eat, in order to i'm
prove its condition so hat it will fetch a
better price. The consequence is by the
time the tiger has arrived in London
from Calcutta he has got fat and lazy.
He gets his meals regular, and has no
disposition to make a meal off you; hence
you can approach him, and if you are
patient and study him and humor him
and be firm with him and never take
your eyes off him or let your back be
turned, you can do what you like with
him. Animals are all alike; there is no
animal so ferocious but can be overcome
with kindness and patience"
How is it hat every now and then
you hear of n lion-tamer being killed."
Drink, sir" said Mr.. Anterior; drink.
The performer gets a glass too much
some day; enters the cage; fails to see
that the floor is wet and slippery; he
makes a false step and is down on his
back before he knows where he is. The
lion or tiger,as the case may be, is on his
chest; and then goodbye. AS long as
you are erect, have your enses about
you, and keep your nerve, you may do
anything with the beast; but if once
your nerve is shaken. your eye unsteady,
and you slip, the game is up."-Pall Mall
Gazette.