The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1892-09-10
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SUNDAY UNDER THE TENTS.
Elephants Get a Plunge Bath and Lions
Have Their Toes Manicured.

nave lneir Toes Manlcured.
Orang-outangs, lions, tigers, hippo
potami, elephants and the other repre-
sentatives of the animal kingdom from
every country in the world spent a 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 orang-outang must have
his whlskers trimmed, the lion his toes
manlcured, 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 a 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 a tea
kettle. On Sunday his mouth must be
pried open and his teeth cleaned and
brushed with scented Goth powder made
from the pulverized bark Of a tree which
grows on the banks of the Lukuga river
In Africa. If his teeth We're not thus
preserved they would decay in three
years and dyspepsia would send him to
a premature grave in a 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 a 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 a large pair Of
nlppers was clipping its toe nails. There
were four cubs in the cage, and one by
II they We're taken out of the cage by
Conkling and their nails cut short.
While this operation was going on the
loness was crying piteouslv and she'd
ding great tears. No human mother
could show more parental solicitude for
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
best OF the day. They were being sponged
with soft warm water and enjoyed the
bath hugely. An old elephant had d
corn on one of his fore feet and he grace,
fully rested it in a stall while his at
tendant removed it with a razor. After
the lion cubs had been attended to
Iamer Conkling entered the cage of
three huge lions which Nj. 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 a sore paw. which Conk-
Inns took III his lap and rubbed with a
BLACK. Wa1y substance, which he said
We G.Stiiled from the sap OF "A Afr.@s
tree growing near Ti1nbactoo. Near
was a cage of hyenasin which the kee
was washing the sore eye Of an OLD ca.
who, the keeper explained, had clev;al
oil; t2e lip Of his predecessor.
Il double horned rIlinocc-os, which
has worn out his horns rubbing t1e.u
against the bars, submitted to a thor
ough scrubbing from the hands of a man
who had the nerve to straddle his back
while rubbing his toadlike skin with a
wood brush.-Indianapolis Sentinel.