Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1890-10-29
PERFORMING CATS.
Their Training Is IA Difficult Task Resqir-
ing Lots OF Patience.

Their Training Is IA Difficult Task ReSQir-
ing Lots OF Patience.
In small street or the Waterloo road In
London stands a house in which are forty
cats, score of rats, a similar number of
mice, one hundred pigeons, u dozen cana.
ries cockatoo, and sea gull The presld-
ing genius over this strange collection of
animals is Leoni Clarke. As soon as you
speak with him you sec at once the secret
OF his power over his heterogeneous family,
Tor Quietness, patience and kindness arc
suggested by his voice aud his manner, and
these are just the characteristics needed to
make the successful trainer. When tho
writer went over Mr.. Clarke's establish
ment the other day he was taken first of all
to the intirmary Here were seven inva-
lids suffering from inhuen2a-a kind of $
temper that they had caught from astrangs
cat These invalids were cozlly nestled os
O rug in front of a fine warm Ere. Thee
food WAS warm milk and rabbit soup. In
another room were upward OF thirty sound
cats-common English cats, Persian cats,
Russian cats and Manx cats. A thick bed
ding of straw covered the floor. Every
night, when the cats are away perform
ing, their room is cleaned out and the win
dows thrown open. It does not pay Mr..
Clarke to have any of these cats III or indis-
posed; and If fully trained one dies he
considers it almost as bad as il he had lost
el00. You see that Russian cat with his ear
bittenP" said Mr.. Clarke. I'VE call him
Dynamite because he is SO fierce. There is
Fireworks" pointing to beautiful tor
toise-shell. Fireworks, herer' and Fire.
works leaped right upon his masters
shoulder. Fireworks is the smartest cat
In tho whole collection. 1t scrambles
up to the tlght-rope--fxed at
height OF thirty feet from the stage
by a bar at m angle of about
seventy-fve degrees, and steps onto the
rope, which it traverses with as self-con-
scious an air as any other master per-
former. Quietly sitting on chair was the
Baldwin cat, peacefully licking itself, just
as any old maids tireside companion might
do. This little creature, though it had been
higher up in the world than any OF its COM
panions and caused greater sensations,
seemed In no wise pulled up and TO be quite
willing to mingle with its tribe on terms of
equality. All the rest of these cats could
perform wonderful feats jump from the
top OF one champagne bottlo to another,
play with mice, rats and canaries, and even
suffer themselves to be hanged by q couple
of rats. The most difficult thing to teach
them is to jump through hoops surrounded
with flames. They are afraid Of the fire,
but their fears ore overcome when they
learn that there is no danger, and this is
accomplished simply by the exercise of
more patience, more coaxing and kindness.
Downstairs was the training room. Here
MIR. Clarke erects q mimic stage, with
scenery and all the other ad]uncts, and
puts recruits through their drill. When
they have learned their more simple exer-
cises they are taken out to the public per-
formances for the purpose of becoming ac-
,customed to the noise, the music and to
strangers. Mr.. Clarke never gives more
than two performances in one evening
this he considers quite enough for the we'll
being Of his cats. He has = private omni-
bus for conveying them from one hall to
another and home. The cats and her ami
mails are packed IN hampers, which are put
on the top Of the bus, while he himself,
with his wife AMI an attendant, travels in
side Besides milk, which is warmed for
them in cold weather, these cal, s are also
rlentifully fed on beef-sometimes raw,
sometimes roasted-which Mrs. Clarke told
q London Star man costs her eight pence
q pound just now also on rabbits ana fish