The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-06-25

noisy lion Is and fire off few blank
cartridges from my revolver and beat
him few times over his nose with my
whip he growls, dances and then sinks
away, saying to himself: What on
earth does all this mean? thought
that l had that man scared TO death. /
guess that amt so frightening as l
thought [ was, The buffer can be
tanned sufficiently TO let me go into the
cage without danger in weeks time,
but there is never any safety with a
sneak lion.
Another thing. The lion must be
not over two years old and he must be
straightforward and strong. weak
lion breaks down very quickly during
training. Such brute is worth from
one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars
unframed. When he is trained he is
worth from three thousand TO five thou
sand dollars, and sometimes more. 1t
takes several years to train lions per-
fectly. The first step is to show them
that / am the master Next l teach
them that do not intend to hurt them
unless they disobey me. i begin ca
ressing them with the end Of my whip,
and do it gently. 1t is not safe to
venture with your hand at first. After
this, which takes weeks and even
months sometimes, teach them to
take food from my hands. When lion
disobeys punish him, but do it with
judgment. There is point beyond
which it is dangerous to go. My left
arm has no muscles from the elbow
up. l whipped lion one blow too
many in Quito, Chilli. If his teeth had
not been worn with age would not be
alive to-day
"When lion crouches down, and his
eyes turn green, and his tail stops wav-
ing from side to side and merely wig
giles at the end like the rattles on rat
tier, look out 1 stop then and give him
a chance to quiet down. Sometimes /
call assistance or do anything that l
can to distract his attention from me,
and then escape"
"What is the easiest trick to teach a
lion?"
after getting him to come to me at
command, to make him lie down.
You can't throw a lion on his
side with your hands as you would
throw a dog in training it. After
this, mounting chair or pedestal is the
easiest. But all this takes months of
daily work-patient work. Never give
up; that is the lion trainers motto.
''In making lion mount chair
generally put his meat on the seat and
accustom him to eat it from there.
Then by degrees 1 coax him to put one
hn o1,o; Nhor l,o L..
this pet him. In the course of time l
induce him to put both fore paws on the
chair. Now comes the struggle. He
does not want to put up his hind feet.
l force him to do this by tapping them
with my whip until he hops up to avoid
punishment. When he has once learned
what l want him to do have little
trouble with him. But all this takes
time"
Il suppose the hardest trick is put
ting your head in the lions mouthP"
ION the contrary, it is one of the cas-
lest and safest. l hold the mouth open
with both hands, and can feel the
least attempt to bring the jaws to-
gether with my fingers. This gives me
chance to withdraw my head in time.
1t is well, however, to know your beast
pretty thoroughly before trying it. At
ter l have once taught lion trick he
never forgets it, and each time he does
it easier than before The hardest
trick is to drive lion in chariot
have sometimes worked for years to
teach that. After l have the harness
adjusted, which takes months, l jump
into the chariot and trust to Provi-
dence. The lion dashes away like the
wind, and never stops until he is wind.
ed. It's lively race, tell you, and
must be repeated hundreds of times be-
fore / can rely on the steed to submit
to public exhibition.
"Another hard trick is the see-saw.
l worked for year before l taught
Parnell to crawl backward up the plank
and allow himself to be jolted up and
down. When the plank, which rests il
the center on low pedestal, is at rest,
one end touches the floor. l first
forced the lion to turn his back to the
plank. Then l tapped him on the nose
and on the fore paws until he backed
away from me to escape. To get him
to go up the plank without leaving it
and running away required almost end
less patience. When he had backed as
far as the center of the plank the board
was 'of course level, and parallel wit
the floor. AS Parnell kept on backing,
the further end of the board slowly
came down to the floor, and he found
himself going down hill. He didn't
like this. When he reached the end
his part OF the work was done. Then .
had to teach his mate to jump up o
the raised end facing Parnell This
brought the board to level again. |
teeter-tottered them up and down by
having my trained dog step from one
side to the other of the center of the
plank"
"Aow about tanning lion by looking
into his eyes?"
You might as well tame him by fix
ing your eyes on his tail. look into
my lions eyes to see what the express
sion may be. There Is where 1 find
the danger signal. If the signal says
go ahead then can turn my back on
Mr.. Lion and go ahead safely.
/ never turn my back on him,
however, within reach of his
paws outside of the bars. Inside the
cage / am MASTER but if turn my back
when am outside and am within reach
| court instant death. Female and
male lions should not be kept together.
The lions are more tractable when
they are alone. The average lion
lives fourteen years in captivity, but