The Grenada gazette., 1886-07-24
PEDRO AND LEANDER.
A Brave Elephant Returns a Lion
to His Cage.

|rhis is Dom Pedro. There is NJ
finer lion in cage"
: Dom Pedro lifted himself from tn
floor of his den, looked at us out o
half-shut eyes, and then, with thu
quiet dignity of the leonine race
walked to the opposite end of hi
prison, where he lay down, with hi
head resting upon outstretched paws
with the exception of couple o1
front teeth which were broken off the
night he escaped he is absolutely per.
feet from tip to toenail."
"Escapedp'
"Oh, yes. Rats let him out of his
den one night last winter and our big
elephant, Leander, caught him and put
him back" ....
| looked at the ringmaster with as
cynical smile as l could muster.
Quite an improvement on the old
fable of the lion and the mouse" 10
marked.
u see you don't believe it; but it is
true, all the same. Look at this"
4 He drew closer to the den and placed
his hand on corner of it which had,
apparently, been broken and then re-
paired with sheet Of half-inch iron,
firmly riveted 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
tight-rope walker-Lilliputisn Louis,
one of the well-known Lascelles chill
dren-was responsible for it all. He
had little black terrier dog which was
actually terror to rats, and nothing
pleased the boy more than to see that
dog in the center of bunch of the lit
tie pests. He kept traps set for them
all about the stables, and when a COL
lection Of about fifty was got together
he would invite all hands out to the
practice ring and for half an hour fair
ly revel in bloodshed. The stables had
to be cleared of the vermin in some
way and so every body rather encour-
aged the boy.
There was little tool box in the
top OF Pedro's den. 1t is there, vet,
and safely nailed up-and this box
Louis utilized as storage place for
the rats while he was collecting enough |
to make Roman holiday.
"Well, sir-Dut let's sit down; it
BONES just as cheap" .. ..
we took seats on the edge of
broken band wagon, and, idly twrling
q piece OF straw, the ringmaster (ring-
master in summer, but now boss of the
stables forming the circus winter quar-
ters) went on with his talk.
"Well, SIR" he continued, lone
night the rats in the box took it into
shelr heads to do a little gnawing.
Iihey gnawed through the floor of the
oox' which was, Of course, the top of
Iredro's den, and one by one slipped
down through the hole into the lions
quarters. As usual, l slept on bunk
IN the ticket wagon, which stood then
practically where it stands now"
He pointed out the gaudy ticket
wagon. as nearly IN the center Of the
space as was possible to place it, {
where it commanded good view Of I
NE animal dens ranged end to end {
about the stable walls.
AT about three o'clock in the
morning ! was awakened by tho lions
1eep growing. He had been restless 7
III night. Ever since eleven o'clock t
lad heard more or less scratching in J
lis neighborhood. but nothing worried 9
ne until l heard that growl. Then l b
Inew something unusual was up. l
Tipped out Of my bunk, and was just
urning up tho fame which always c
'urns dimly in lantern near my o
lead, whom l heard q roar that woke G
very beast in the place; felt shock /,
e though apadded bsttering ram had A
truck one Of the dens, and then the q
Prner Of Pedro's den gave way with a
crash, and saw bis huge shape fall t.
~ and roll over on the sawdust. He "
~ on his feet in a second, and with o
nosher roar, he made two bounds o
cross the stable and went through Il
pat dsor thsre leading into the eie- Al
'hant house. ! thought ! saw A
sepls ef rats running ahead of him, p
nd to this day ! believe be went into il
&c elephant house in chase Of them. h,
here is no doubt in my mind that ID
'hea the rats found themselves Gagged h,
I - ans-nsshsd wire net which ran II
i 4 y ~. 10 Z ~