Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-12-13

An Odd Middle Ages Legend About tho
King of Beasts.


King of Beasts.
At Niblo's, New York, Turing the COM
ing production Of the grea, Roman spec
tacIe 81 c au iius Nero" three full grown
royal lions will be hitched to a Roman
chariot and will be driven full tilt
aroun the stage during the arena scene.
TINS feat was first successfully per-
fo@.. ed by the Roman emperor Hello
gabalUS, who created a deci ed sensa-
tiou as lie took the air along the Appian
Way drawn by erstwhile fierce Nunid-
ian lions
The first lion tanner was Hanna, the Car
thagenian. lie took cub and trained
it so that when full grown it followed
him around the streets of Carthage like
u big dog. His fellow citizens did not
look with favor on his act, but on the
contrary considered it Il crime and BAN
jshed him and his lion from the city,
asserting that the republic had to fear
the worst consequences from man who
mad been able to subdue 50 much
ferocity." They evidently anticipated
the latter dry proverb, "A hungry lion
is true devil and fears nothing IN the
world, for they wanted nothing to do
with a man who could make a lion, even
a well fed one, obey him.
there was IA curious legend i'll the
Middle Ages that Il lions wheip was
Born dead and had only first aroused
to or roc ,ived life at the expiration OF
three days by the roar of its sire, or by
being breathed on by him.
Probably the man in this city who
knows most about lions and Wild AMI
mails IN general is Mr.. w. a. Conklin, of
the Central Park geological collection.
lie has spent years studying them and
their habits. and he is an authority on
them. Said lie yesterday: There Is no
animal that | know of that can not be
tanned by man, though some of them
are well nigh intractablc. There have
teen some very eminent lion tanners IN
this country, notably Herr Dire sbach and
Van Amburgh.
1T requires particular knack ON the
part Of II man to lecome Il tanner of ami
mails lie has to have great patience
and great courage. In the case of lions
ihey are taken when cuLs, No one but
tleir keeper must ever feed them and
they must be shown over and over again
what they are to do, until at last they
get to understand W hat they are to do
and when to do it.
Even then it takes full year to teach
;hcm simple tricks, and by that time
they have grown t. be large and power
full animals to handle. a lion attains
its full size i'll three years, though it
takes four to fully mature it. They
usually live ten or twelve years, though
| have heard OF one perfectly accredited
case where one lived to be so years old;
but that was an exceptional case, the
same as we occasionally see among
horses.
GA full grown lion is fed once day,
and then given about IA pounds of raw
meat. We feed ouis here in the garden
every afternoon about g 30 o'clock, and
jhey can tell when feeding time comes
as well as you can with your watch.
We feed them every day but Sunday.
We give them nothing to eat that day in
order that their stomachs and digestive
apparatus may have rest.
In its wild state a lion when it kills
kid or an antelope or any other prey sits
down and gorges itself. Then it goes
off to its den and sleeps until it digests
its meal and becomes hungry again,
when it starts out in search of another
meal. In captivity it is fed every week
day, but it knows perfectly when Sun
dag comes and never expects any food
on that day. AS proof of this you can
come here and hear them roar for their
food on week days, but they never do
this Sundays. They seem to know that
they won't get it aud their systems re-
guire rest from food"
S eaking of the virulence Of lion bites,
Nh Conklin was of the opinion that they
were due to the fact that lions We're fed
on raw meat, and good deal of the
small fragments remained about the
teeth and jaws, where they partially
putreti,d. This caused blood poisoning.
Mr. Conklin believes that the bad results
of good many dog bites were due to
the same causes. If lions or a dogs
teeth could be cleaned off with water
and a b ush after its meals there would
be no fear of poisoning from its bite. -
"