Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-09-08

/ hunter " as Or0ered TO I8ke ana HOW
He Was Finally Successful After q Long
| Wait.
Copyright, 1892, by Charles B. Lewis-1
| There died in Paris, in the year 1859, a
citizen named NJ. Clergett, who was both
| an eccentric and a miser. For the last ten
years of his life he visited the Royal 70
| illogical gardens almost daily, and he al
ways took his stand before the cage of a
| certain lion named Majestic. The beast
was a very large and powerful animal,
, and between him and the miser there
came about a friendship which was the
talk of all visitors NJ. Clergett was the
| only human being who dared put his hand
into the cage and caress the beast, and had
it been permitted he would have entered
| the cage. He had only one fault to find
with Majestic. The monarch was not a
black named lion. A great French hunter
who had travelled in Africa had told
him of seeing a black named lion, which
was far larger beast, and he was never
| quite satisfied with his pet after that.
The lion, after captivity of sixteen
years, died in April, 1863. NJ. Clergett
| died only twenty days later. 1t is said
! that he died of grief at the loss of Males
tic. Be that as it may, he left a will in
Which, tLe SUM VI SIO,oVO WIS uOIldUtu 10
| the zoo, ''to procure from Africa full
| grown specimen of the black named lion,
| who shall be named after me.' 1t was
provided that ION each and every Sabbath
| day the said lion shall be entitled to five
pounds of dressed fowl, in addition to his
| regular diet of fresh meat" and at his
death he was to be honored with tomb
| stone setting forth his name and other par
| ticulars.
y-aS cd he or
miser turned out to be very well off and
had no relatives to go to law over his will.
An order was at once dispatched to the
| great animal dealer at Hamburg, but
| black named lions are like white elephants
few and far between. The house had
| not had one in five years. The order was
placed to be filled, however, and one day,
| weeks later, while was in the Buchuana
| country and had secured rhinoceros and
| two leopards, a letter was received by mes
| senger from the coast, which read:
Drop all other work until you have
| captured full grown, black named lion.
He must be n perfect specimen"
To read was to obey. Within half an
hour l sending out couriers to the
natives with the promise of a musket and
fifty charges of powder to any one who
could furnish the Information wanted
The news reached a village fifty miles
away before anything came of it. Then
an old man sent me word to come and see
him, and When l had arrived l found that
he had just reached home from a visit to a
village nearly fifty miles to the west.
There he had beheld a black named lion
with his own eyes, and had come very
near falling n victim to him as well. The
beast had just made its appearance in the
locality, and was described as the largest
lion any of the natives had ever seen. He
had an unusually heavy name, and it was
q lrnn Iar ii 10 hi nn1n hot
of a mouse instead of tawny. This latter
fact, if it was fact, proved that the ami
NAL was not yet over 10 years old, though
full grown. The old man offered TO guide
us to the village, and after a three days
march we reached it to find n collection of
about fifty huts situated on the banks of
small river. Stretching away to the
north was sterile plain, and two miles in
rear of the village was range of moan
tainS Between the stream and the noun
tains the ground fertile, and the vii
layers were living in peace and plenty. at
night their cattle were secured in Il l-raal
or pen, constructed of logs G3d thorn
bushes, and up to the date Of the appear
ance of the blaze, NAMED lion 10 Wild Ee!-i
had ever got into the pen.
The new arrival had signal:1;cl lis res
ence by carrying OF one OF the hcrt!.'-, an
only the night before our arrival t. -
leaped the barricade, killed Il SEER i.5ct;
years old and then renewed the hog :,
a mass of rocks fully mile f-o:A tie =!
laSe. The trail was still fresh and COZ.
have been followed to the spot where r3:,.
lion was sleeping after his meal. The i-Ii,-,
was seven or eight feet high. y lion could
leap into the pen easy enough, but he fact
of this fellow leaping out again with hi~
prey was something to excite wonder
There was plenty of blood and hair on the
thorns and sharpened sticks, but it ap-
raara6 that he had npatlv flpa rel rho
with his heavy and awkward burden. In
deed, a dozen or more of the villagers who
had been turned out by the rumpuS in the
pen saw the lion as he came out He also
saw them, and roared defiance and waited
for them to come forth and give battle
When he finally went away he had the car
cass of the steer by the neck and drew the
body along the ground.
A lion does not leap into a kraal until he
has made the circuit of it two or three
times and selected a particular spot. If he
comes again he makes use of the same
spot provided it has not meanwhile been
repaired. Knowing this to be a fact, the
natives seek his destruction by digging a
pit inside the fence at a spot where he will
alight. This fellow, as was clearly to be
seen, had made his bound six feet from the
base of the fence and had alighted at about
the same distance on the other side. 1t
was not to be expected that he would re-
turn that night, but we at once began
work on pit. When completed it was ten
feet long, six feet wide and twelve feet
deep, and we cut and drew up a lot of heavy
poles to place across it in case we had to
keep him prisoner for two three days.
No attempt was made to conceal the pit,
the fence was very thick at that point.
1t was a full moon that night, and from
my post in one of the huts 1 caught sight
of the lion at about O'Clock. He did not
L 81 IL l~..A
the thicket as silently cat moving ON
its prey He came down to within 200 feet