The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-26
A RAILROAD CIRCUS.
Liberty Loving Tiger, Gagged Lion
and Scared Messenger.
1T WAS AS EXCNING AS BAR
NUM,s THREE RING SHOW.

The Express Messenger. Found That He
Was Travelling With an InqEisitive
Tiger-He Rode in Another Car After
That and the Tiger Ruled the Trairt-
The Passengers Felt More Fear Than,
Road Agents Would Have Caused.
NEW YORK, April 25.-A Cleveland
despatch to the Sun says:
The agent of the American Express
Company in this city received this tele-
gram soon after breakfast this morning:
GALLON, O.. April "a.
r. NJ Mcafahon agent american Enpress Com
Tiger for New York loose in Cincinnati.
Look out G. W. Burt
The employees of the company were
notified and proceeded to arm them
selves. They got variety of weapons.
from formidable repeating rife to a
wicked looking pitchfork. Meantime
the train with the tiger loose in the OK
press car was speeding toward Cleve-
land.
Before the train reached the station
the doors of all the waiting rooms were
locked and the people in the outer Dor
ton or the depot were notified to find
safe places. The train steamed into the
station and the passengers on beard lost
no time in getting out of the oars and
behind the strong iron fence that
separates the tracks from the waiting
rooms. They were pretty badly scared.
The employees of the express company
approached the car cautiously and
peeped through the crack In the door
that the agent had left in his precipitate
flight. They could see the eyes of the
tiger cleaning in the darkness, and they
did not know what was best to do. At
last one man, little more encourageous
than the others, opened the door little
further, and discovered that the tiger
had gone back into his cage. Then
little strategy was sufficient to confine
him there.
The tiger was shipped from Sells
Brothers winter quarters at Columbus
to w. A. Conklin, New York. He was
placed in an old iron cage covered with
a wooden piano box. Beside his cage
was that of lion similarly Gagged. Soon
after the train left Columbus the ex-
press messenger and baggage master
heard mysterious gnawing and scratch
ing within big box. They knew that
some sort of wild beast was inside.
They went into a forward car A coffin
was among the baggage that was de-
stined for Cardington, O. The train
stopped at the station, and the baggage
man and the express messenger opened
the door of the baggage car.
In another moment they had slammed
it partially shut and fled to the passenger
coach for life. The coffin was on the
floor, and alongside of it, stretched at
full length, was the tiger. When he saw
the men he made frightful roar The
lion answered in the other cage. The
tiger crouched ready to spring at the
men, but they did not give him the
chance.
They fled and left the car to its fate.
There was no express delivered all the
way to Cleveland. and the coffin went ON
with the train. At every stop the train
men warned the people to give the car
wide berth. The passengers learned of
the trouble and they were as badly fright
ened as the railroad employees, for only a
thin door separated them from the tiger.
For the remainder of the journey the
tiger and the lion serenaded every station
along the route. The train men expected
the tiger would set the lion free and
fight would ensue. Fortunately that did
not happen. 1t was only luck that ena-
bled the men to secure the animal with
so little trouble in this city.
The tiger and lion left for the East on
the Lake Shore and the New York Gen.
tral an hour after their arrival here. But
the express messenger on that car saw
that the cages were well covered with all
the freight he could pile on top of them.