The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-28

occh Iiuiicu W Prdpplc with abstract
Questions, the cat of New York city
would appear as q rule to have been
created only for the purpose of furnish
ing to the funny man of the press a
welcome object for ridiculc, to be, with
the assistance of the property boot
jack, transformed into a Joke. But,
says the New York Tribune, since Prof.
Welton's show has come to town the
possibilities of the cat, the ordinary,
scraggy, baleful-cyed, wicked and dis
honest street cat, have been extended
SO greatly as to open to the view of the
critical mind q vista of unboundcd
promise for the animal.
Henry Wilton, or Prof. Welton. as his
name appears on the programme, is a
German, having been born in Berlin in
1859. To him, as to most of the trainers
in the show, the business of training
animals comes naturally. For one hun
dred and fifty years before his birth his
ancestors had been engaged in handling
and breaking wild animals, particularly
tigers and lions, and other large ami
mails of the cat tribe. He inherited the
confidence and that other peculiar quail
ity which has no name but which makes
some men naturally the conquerors of
fierce beasts, and at the age of sixteen
years he exhibited five lions which he
had trained himself. Walking along
the streets one night in the jovial
mood of those who have no financial
problems to vcx them he spied poor,
miserable looking, abjcct specimen of a
gray cat. Now, to Il trainer of big cats
n cat upon the CUTTERS brim was no
common feline, but it was some
thing more. So he took the animal
home, and that cat is the same one that
now delights children in the show twice
n day by his remarkable feats. He soon
found that he had soul above mice,
and now Pasha, as he has been named,
has become n cat of cats, Tommy of
great price. Pasha is the cat who jumps
through two hoops of fire and through
the drum. The latter feat was the one
most difficult to teach him, and Pasha
still looks on the drum with suspicion
lie doesn't know where he will land
when he breaks through the paper
drnmhcads, and that disquicting uncer-
tainty weighs upon his proud Castilian
heart. But to those who know the
nature of all animals of the
cat tribe, and particularly the fear they
entertain of fire, the leap through the
blazing hoops will remain the most
wonderful. 1t required an incredible
amount of patience, and also that pc
culiar influence of the trainer. to teach
the cat this trick. The trainer began
by making him leap through rings the
size of a trundling hoop, and gradually
decreased the diameter until he got
down to the present small hoops, which
arc just large enough for the animals
body to pass through.
When Wilton found Pasha so able and
brilliant he decided to try again and at
last he had collection of fortv-two
cats, which he exhibited throughout the
country. Last year he took them to
Mexico, and there the climate killed
twenty of them. In exchange for these
he brought back only one little spiteful
red devil of q Mexican Grcascr cat,
which does not show signs OF much am
bition, and unlike Barlsis, is most Gun
willin'." Her health is poor, also, and
| she is too delicate to train. This same
trouble prevents the training of Angora
and Maltese cats, although these two
breeds are the most intelligent and easy
to teach. Hardy animals being re-
| jN''N'., i'ooO Va IilC CtIS are the common
tiger cats. They do well enough, how
ever, as anyone Will acknowledge, aft
or seeing old Tom walk on his fore feet
Lconta ride on the tricycle., or Lady
and Lconta on the scc-saw, while Flora
Il sweet little white thing with blue
eyes, stands in the middle. 1t was hard
to teach Flora that. Cats do not like to
be restrained, but wish to wander
around in their own free way.
Paddy and John L., who spar in the
two-foot ring. really do get angry when
they spar, and they fight a squarer fight
than some of the ''amachoors" and pro-
fessional human pugilists.