Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-04-18
INTO THE LIONS DEN.
THE THRILLING EXPLOIT OF
A NEWSPAPER MAN.
interviewing Lion and Lioness by
Entering Their Cage-Coming Out
of the Ordeal with a Whole Skin.

A New York Sun reporter has outdone
all previous feats in interviewing by
visiting a pair of lions in their den.
/ The dangerous work was done at the
menagerie connected with Barnum' S
Circus, in Madison Square Garden. We
quote from the reporters account of his
/ thrilling experience as follows:
! Mr.. Kellar and fully twenty gentle
men who were interested in the welfare
of the reporter who was to go in came to
stand in front OF the cage. Kellar
babe him Il grave good-by and Superin-
tendent Conklin swung back the heavy
iron door.
''1ou had better take your oyercoat
off, said Manager Conklin to the writer.
''It's best to be free if anything should
happen"
The reporter looked at those two lions
in their cage long and earnestly. The
male lion, with his great name and
noble, hngly face, was living Mt full
length near the front OF the cage. His
nose was resting between his outstretched
paws, and he met the reporters gaze
with such a mild, calm, dignified look
that at the time it did not seem as
though he would condescend to be ugly
and savage under any circumstances.
The honess was not SO lazy nor so dig
nified in appearance. She was pacing
back and forth in the little compartment
of the big cage just behind her royal
spouse, and she seemed restless and i'll
at ease. Every now and then she opened
her mouth in a most prodigious yilwn,
and thereby disclosed two rows OF great
white, glistening teeth in anything but
reassuing manner. She didn't seem
to notice the reporter at all.
Are you readyl" inquired Manager
Conklin, as he took off his coat and
opened the door to the middle com
partment of the big cage. The writer
wasn't quite ready to be eaten alive at
that moment, but as he had expressed a
wish to learn by experience Just how it
seems to be shut up in cage with two
lions, and as it would never have done
to have backed out at that time, he pro-
ceeded to take off his overcoat He
didn't hurry himself particle in doing
this. Undue haste is not dignifed Mt
any time, and, besides, he had faint
hope that their majesties, the lions,
would notice his deliberate manner and
set it down in their minds to excessive
GOODNESS. But even when one is in no
hurry it doesn't take very long to get
ont of loose-ftting overcoat, and in
much too short time for comfort the
reporter was obliged to announce that
he was ready.
'Look here, old man, you had better
let it go" said "Tody" Hamilton at this
iuncture, as he laid his hand gently on
the reporters shoulder. ''You know
there is no real necessity for you to go
into that ccge. tell You honestly that
/ wouldn't do it myself for $40, 600. +"
But this advice, kindly as it was, came
to late. The reporter was half way mp
the little ladder before Mr.. Hamilton
had finished speaking. In another in
slant he was in the cage beside Manager
Conkhn, and that gentleman had closed
the door.
Keeping as near the centre of the mid
die compartment of the cage as possible,
the reporter looked about him. On his
right, in the easternmost compartment,
was a great man-eating Bengal tiger.
He was living close to the bars which
separated him from the middle compart-
ment, and the bars were so wide apart
that he could easily have thrust his paws
between them and reached the reporter
There was wicked CLEAN in the big
tigers great green eyes, and it seemed
to gain in ferocity when Manager Conk-
lin casually remarked that he was the
most savage tiger he had ever seen in
menagerie in all his experience. The
reporter would have shrunk away from
the terrible animal if he had had room,
but the middle compartment was only
about four feet wide, and in moving
away from the tiger he would have been
obliged to get close to the lions end of
the cage. This was not to be thought
of for moment, as the lions had be-
come greatly excited rs soon as they
had seen the stranger come into the
cage, and they were snarling and leap
ing about as though they smelled fresh
meat and wanted to get at it.
The reporter looked at them as they
dashed themselves against the sides of
their den, and as he caught sight of the
ferocious CLEAN in THEN eyes he began
to think that he had better have taken
Mr.. Hamilton's advice after all, and re-
manned outside. The only really cool
man there at that time was Manager
Conklin, for when the reporter cast
hasty glance at the little crowd in front
of the cage he saw upon every face
strained, anxious expression.
"Tody" Hamilton had taken off his
hat and was wiping his forehead, and
Mr.. kellar was as white rs a sheet of
paper. The Erening Sun man had but
little time to notice this, however. He
saw it all at one glance. In moment
more he had eyes for nothing but the
occupants of the cage.
:" Stand still there against the back of
the cage in the middle, " said Manager
Conklin in low voice.
The reporter took one step backward,
and felt the bars at the rear of the cage
touch his back Manager Conklin step
ped to the door which separated the
middle compartment from that in which
the excited lions were confined, md
pulling the bolt, opened it.
And right then occurred something
which the reporter is at a loss to fully