The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-08-18
SUNDAY Under THE TENTS.
Elephants Get a Plunge Bath and Lions
Have Their Toes Manicured.


Have Their Toes Manicured.
Orang-outangs, lions, tigers, hippo
potami, elephants and the other repre-
sentatives of the animal kingdom from
every country in the world spent quiet
Sunday with their attendants on the
circus lot in west Indianapolis.
The managers go to Sunday school,
the performers recuperate, the canvas
men and drivers sleep, and in fact every
body rests except the attendants in the
menagerie. The rang-outang must have
his whiskers trimmed, the lion his toes
manicured, and the elephant must have
a sponge bath and his corns pared
The hippopotamus perspires blood dur
ing the whole week, and unless his
rough skin is washed on Sunday black
crust forms and he gets "scaly." The
American water is not so soft and free
from alkali as his native water of CEN
trail Africa and his teeth get coated with
matter resembling the sediment of tea
kettle. On Sunday his mouth must be
pried open and his teeth cleaned and
brushed with scented tooth powder made
from the pulverized bark of a tree which
grows on the banks of the Lukuga river
in Africa. If his teeth were not thus
preserved they would decay in three
years and dyspepsia would send him to
premature grave in foreign land.
The toe nails of the lion grow long and
sharp. Twice a year they must be
trimmed with clippers to keep them
from tearing each other to pieces in
their family brawls. The tigers and the
bears rub against their cages so much
that sore spots break out and they must
be healed with liniment and medicated
oils. In fact all animals must receive
treatment of some kind. AS their regu.
lar keepers alone understand how to
treat them, Sunday is thus busy day.
When the representatives of the city
papers visited the menagerie they found
the lions roaring and much excited.
Near one of the cages two men held
down on the ground a cub, while Lion
Tanner Conkling with large pair OF
nippers was clipping its toe nails. There
were four cubs in the cage, and one by
one they were taken out of the cage by
Conkling and their nails cut short.
While this operation was going on the
lioness was crying piteously and shed.
ding great tears. No human mother
could show more parental solicitude fol
its offspring than this queen of animals.
The lions in another cage 100 feet dis
tant almost chilled ones blood with
their terrible roars while the cubs were
undergoing the operation.
The elephants seemed to be having the
bestof the day. They were being sponged
with soft warm water and enjoyed the
bath hugely. An old elephant had a
corn on one of his fore feet and he grace
fully rested it in stall while his at.
tendant removed it with razor. After
the lion cubs had been attended to
Tanner Conkling entered the cage of
three huge lions which Mr.. Perley said
was the biggest cage of lions in America.
Two are Asiatic and one is African.
The latter, the largest and most noble
of the lot, had sore paw, which Conk-
ling took in his lap and rubbed with a
black, waxy substance, which he said
was distilled from the sap of an African
tree growing near Timbuctoo. Near by
was cage of hyenas in which the keeper
was washing the sore eye of an old one
who, the keeper explained, had chewed
off the lip of his predecessor.
A double horned rhinoceros, which
has worn out his horns rubbing them
against the bars, submitted to thor
ough scrubbing from the hands of a man
who had the nerve to straddle his back
while rubbing his toadlike skin with
wood brush.-Indianapolis Sentinel.