The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-06-29

but there is never any safety with
sneak lion.
Another thing The lion must be
not over two years old and lie must be
straiSht-ba backed and strong. a weak
hon 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 teach
them that do not intend to hurt them
unless they disobey me. l begin ca
rcssing them with the end of my whip,
and do it gently. 1t is not safe to
venture with your hand Mt first. After
this, which takes weeks and even
months sometimes, 1 teach them to
take food from my hands. When lion
disobcys punish him, but do it with
Judgment. There is a point beyond
which it is dangerous to go. My left
arm has no muscles from the elbow
up. 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 u lion crouches down, and his
eyes turn green, and his tail stops way
ing from side to side and merely wir-
giles at the end like the rattles on a rat
tier, look out. l stop then and give him
chance to quiet down. Sometimes l
call assistance or do anything that 1
can to distract his attention from me,
and then escape"
What is the easiest trick to teach n
lion?"
After getting him to como to me Mt
command, to make him lie down.
You can't throw lion on his
side with your hands as you would
throw dog in training it. After
this, mounting chair or pedestal is the
easiest. But all this takes months of
daily worls-paticnt work. Never rive
up; that is the lion trainers motto.
I'm making lion mount chair 1
generally put his meat on the scat and
accustom him to cat it from there.
Then by degrees coax him to put one
paw on the chair. When lie has done
this pct him. In tho course of time I
induce him to put both fore paws on the
chair. Now comes the struggle. He
does not want to put up his hind feet.
force him to do this by tapping them
with my whip until he hops up to avoid
punishment. When he has once learned
what | 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 mouth?"
"On the contrary, it is one of the cas-
lest and safest. l hold the mouth open
with both hands, and can feel tho
least attempt to bring the jaws to-
gether with my fingers. This gives me
chance to withdraw my head in time.
1t is we'll, however, to know your beast
pretty thoroughly before trying it. At
ter have onoc taught lion trick he
never forgcts it, and each time he does
it easier than before. The hardest
trick is to drive lion in a chariot I
have sometimes worked for wears To
teach that. After I have the harness
adjusted, which takes months, lump
INTO the chariot and trust to Provi-
dcnce. The lion dashcs away like tho
WIND, and never stops until he is wind
cd. 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 scc-san.
l worked for year before l taught
Parncll to crawl backward up the plank
and allow himself to be ioltcd up and
down. When the plank, which rests in
the center on low pedestal, is at rest,
one end touches the floor. first
forced the lion to turn his back to the
plank. Then tapped him on the nose
and on the fore paws until he backed
away from me to escape. To get him
TO go mp 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 with
the floor. AS Parncll 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 on
the raised end facing Parncll This
brought the board to level again. I
teeter-tottercd them up and down by
having my trained dog step from one
side to the other of the center of tho
plank"
'llow about tanning lion by looking
into his eycs?"
You might as we'll tame him by fix,
ing your eyes on his tail. 1 look into
my lions eyes to see what the expires.
sion may be. There is where | find
the danger signal. If the signal saws
go ahead then can turn my back ON
MIR. Lion and go ahead safely.
] never turn my back on him.
however, within reach of his
paws outside of the bars. Inside tho