Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-27
Chloroforming a Lion.


 [From the St. Louis Globe Democrat
 "Emperor" ia dead, and the hundreds of | thousands of people who have admired his tawny majesty at the Geological gardens for l nearly fourteen years will miss the noble | beast On Sunday afternoon he was pain- | lessly executed by Superintendent Bellaire | and Keeper Crawley in the interest of simple l humanity. Chloroform was used in the act, and in less than five minutes the grand old | brute had passed over to ths celestial forest. Emperor" was close on to fifty years of age, and of late months has been quite fec ble He was partially paralyzsd as to his hind limbs, and month ago, in the language of his keeper, went "clean off of his feed" On Sunday morning 1t was agreed that it 1 would be cruelty to let the Emperor finger | longer. A suggestion to shoot him was at once rejected. It is not an easy matter to kill lion outright. Four or five bullets might have been put into the tawny old car | csss, and death not occur for week. In the | morning the Empress was separated from l her consort for the first time in ten years. 1 She bitterly resented the act, and 1t was with difficulty that she wss driven into an- other cage Then she showed her anger by roaring loud and long, and threw herself ln- cessantIy against the bars or her prison | house.
 Captain Bellaire had made all his prepare tions, and had instructed Keeper Cfawley ss to his duty. MT. Joseph L.. Mullery, acting secretary of the Fair association, was on hand to act as timekeeper, and half dozen ladies and gentlemen, casual visiters to the garden, witnessed the royal removal.
 Five pounds of chloroform had been se- cured for the purpose. sack about e1gh- teen inches in length and perhaps twelve inches in circumference had been made, and this was filled with lint. From telegraph wire sort of muzz:e had been made, into which the lint bag was placed. handle three feet long was attached to the muzz!e.
 s'Emperor" was lying near the outer bars, with his head between his massive paws. He looked old and gray and feeble, and his beard was as white as snow, but he was ma- jeatic in all his feeblentss. and the little group of spectators viewed with mixed ad- miration and alarm the intrepid keeper as he entered the cage. There seemed to be in the massive paws all of the old time force, and even an old and dying lion does not seem to be Q safe creature to meet alone.
 As Crawley entered the cage, the Empress, shut out from view of the scene, seemed by instinct to divine that something unusual was to happen. She roared in her anger, and the lashipg of her tail and the concus- sion as she threw herself against the bars could pc n6arO plaluly OA JUG outnAuo oA sAo carnivora house. The old lion answered her call in deep tones that were but reminis- cence of hls old time roar.
 Quietly Crawley approached from behind and deftly put the muzzle and bag over the royal nose. One pound and half of the chloroform had been poured in on the lint. The action aroused the old fellow, who had seemed to drop into dozs. With his mas siye paws he tried to knock the muzzle away. It had been fairly placed over his upper jaw and nostrils.
 And at the instant Mullery. who stood out side with the watch in his hand, said, "Fourteen minutes to three." Grawlsy held the deadly anaesthetic in its strange recepta- cle over Emperor's nose for minute and @ half, being assisted by the old fellow invol. untarily closing his lower jaw over 1t. Al the minute and half, by @ blow of one oi his paws, he knocked the contrivance off oi his muzzle. Crawley pushed 1t up, and walking to the bars with it, handed 1t te Captain Bellaire, who measured out three fourths of pound more of the chleroform , Crawley then replaced the affair over Empe ) TOTS nose. He struggled no longer. He rathe seemed to like it. His eyes closed and hi l grizzled old featurss relapsed. At 2:51 tn
 mighty frame shook with the first of sa