The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1891-09-19

lie IA q daughter, named lnez, who
was two or three years my Junior. She
had a tutor, and vas being educated
for 4 lady, and when / ioyfulls att
copied Mr.. Pages kind rfef, he pat
ted me on the head. and said / should
have some book learning, and should
share his daughters studies.
This pleased The extremely, for / had
a passion for books, and / loved inez
with my whole soul. And this study
ing together would be SO delightful!
As the years went on my attachment
for Inez grew and strengthened, and if
my lessons were all learned perfectly,
apd II / got on wonderfully well with
my studies. as our tutor said. II was al
together owing to the fact that her
presence made all things easy and dc
lightful for me.
/ had my w place in the cifcus, and
was called a good ''artist"-for pur
names were somewhat pretentious-
Int my heart was not In It. The dream
Of my life was to make a fortune;
marry 1nez and take her to Italy, and
there under the skies of perpetual sum-
mer let life slip away in love and
peace. A very useless and romantic
sort of life, l suppose You will say, but
the prospect was delightful to me. l
think it was non the less so to Inez,
for had often spoke to her about II,
and we had no secret from cnch other.
When 1ncz was Hbout sixteen, Mr..
Page added some wild animals to his
show. A couple of lions, three tigers.
an Arabian camel, several monkeys
and IN elephant.
The elephant was a trained nj and
could do lots of amusing tricks. and the
lions had been tanned, and were consid-
cred perfectly harmless.
With the animals came their keeper.
His name was Carl Andrus. | believe
he was of Spanish parentagc, but he
was American born, and well educated.
People called him extremely hand
some, and ladies who came to see the
animals went wild over the keeper;
but, to my mind, Andrus was an evil,
sinister-looking fellow, and from the
first | distrusted him.
OF course. you have anticipated that
he fell in love with Inez-indccd, it
could not well have been otherwise;
for lncz was so lovely and bewitching
that all who came within the sphere of
her influence were fascinated.
She gave him no encouragement, for
the dear girl was no coquette, and in
the world she loved only me.
hpJrpe oxar;roJ /, ,ort,;, so.+ e.
fiuence over her, owing, perhaps, to the
strong mesmeric power which was his,
and to which no doubt he owed much
of his success in subjecting wild ami
mails to his control.
He had not been a fortnight with our
troupe before he declared his love for
lnez in the most passionate terms, and
was very quietly rejected. He vas
angry, and charged her with loving me,
and she proudly confessed it.
At first AndruS was very cross and
but after a time he rallied. and
was very sweet and complaisant to both
lnez and myself.
by and bv he offered to teach her his
art of lion tanning. Mr.. Page caught
at the idea g~reedilv, for although a
good man in other respects, he was
ready to do almost anything to
make money, and he foresaw that
4 female lion tanner would be a
great acquisition to bis exhibition.
An announcement that Il young and
woman would enter the den of
wild beasts would draw thousands.
lnez loved her father, and was quite
ready to do anything to please him.
and besides, there was n wild spirit of
adventurous daring in the girl, which
the idea of danger attractive
20 her. When first | heard the project
was filed with dire appre-
| distrusted Andrus more
Than distrusted the wild beasts. As
the lions, they seemed harmless
enough, but a lion is a lien and can
never change his nature.
| besought lnez with all my powers of |
to give up the mad project,
but she only laughed at what she called
my nervousness. And when / would
have forbidden her, by right of the
love ! bore her, from thus putting her |
life in peril, she kissed me, and said l
a cross old tyraut, and ran away
to tell Andrus that she was ready for
first lesson. So it went on for !
weeks. lneZ entered the den
with AndruS, and under his tuition
was becoming very expert at the bust
ness of lion tanning. The animals were
really getting quite fond of her, and
she was losing all fear of them very
last.
No exhibition had yet taken place in
but Mr.. Page decided to adver-
Use the new attraction forthwith: and
spite of my wild e~ntreaty that he
would no longer risk his child's life
imong those savage brutes, the bills
we're printed.
As we had all expected, the bait took
With the public, and on the night ap-
for thu debut of Inez the vast
ent was filed to overlooking. | have
seer such a crowd at any show
or since.
Just before | was to go into the ring
n some of my acrobatic performances,
.ncz sought me out, and finging her
around my neck, kissed me pas
,ionately.
dear Old Tom, said she, don't
ook SO cross. am going to make all
'ur fortunes. Kiss me, dear, and wish
success"
l snatched her to my breast, and
,issed the sweet mouth, the soft cheek,
he shining hair, and once more be-
ought her not to risk the feat she was
bout attempting.
Pit she was firm, and / let her go-
selling much as the mourncr feels
he sees the coffin lid shut down