The Washington bee., 1893-05-27
MADE FRIENDS WITH A TIGER.
An Animal Tanner Overcame the Dislike
of Brute He Had Chastised,

An Animal Tanner Overcame the Dislike
of a Brute He Had Chastised.
A noted wild beast tanner, on being
asked how he so successfully tanned, re-
lated his experience as follows, says an
exchange:
Il was q bareback rider in we'll
known circus, and in my leisure hours
found great delight in playing with the
monkeys in the menagerie. One es-
pecially pleased me and often fed him
on figs. One day while standing nea,
his cage about to hand him fig ]
heard a fierce growing near me, and
turning about saw fierce looking tiger
stick his great paw out between the
iron bars of his cage and reach for me.
One inch nearer and he would surely
have struck me. This unexpected and
unwarranted attack so aggravated me
that raised my metal headed cane and
struck the beast such terrific blow
that he quickly retreated to the corner
of his cage and howled and beloved
furiously. On the following day the
whole operation was repeated. The
tiger was now my deadly enemy and
displayed such fierceness on my ap
proach to the cage that I became in.
terested in his actions.
ITO test his powers of memory I in
tentionally absented myself for several
days, but he seemed to know my step,
and the moment he caught sight of me-
his eyes flashed fire, he beat furiously
against the side of the cage with his
tail and fairly shook the cage in his
rage. Suddenly the thought of tam
ing the animal came to me- My first
step was to cause the beast to forget
his wrongs, and in this I succeeded
wonderfully. For hours I would tall
to him in soft sweet accents and occa-
sionally hand him little bits of meat.
In a few months we had become so in
innate that he ate out of my hand.
Little by little he permitted me to rub
his head, and when I spoke to him hs
would close his eyes and lean his head
lovingly against the iron bars I now
considered the time ripe to take the
last great step-namely, to enter the
cage. I told the keeper of my inten-
tion, but he was frightened and said 1
had gone mad. But I insisted. I'm.
willingly he consented.
He opened the door at the rear and
allowed me to enter, while trembjing gly
he held the door latch in one hand in
order to open the door quickly in case
of accident, and in the other hand he
held long pointed rod in case of IN
attack by the beast. AS [ hurrielly
entered the cage the tiger drew back
in fright and stared at me- He seemed
to be expecting an attack and prepared
to spring. But stood motionless and
apparently careless. Then I wrapped
at the door; it was quickly opened and
Jumped out.
Two weeks later repeated the visit
and from that time daily. I talked
pleasantly to the tiger and each time
he became quieter. At my tenth visit
I ordered him to lie down, and he
obeyed. As reward for his obedience
I gave him little pieces of meat This
always had magical effect But he
soon expected meat at every visit, and
when it was not forthcoming became
restless and little vicious. But ]
soon overcame this-in fact, 1 treated
him like spoiled child and did almost
what I pleased with him. Up to this
time the keeper had always stood back
of the cage with his hand on the latch,
ready at moments notice to open the
door. I now ordered him to lock the
door and step around to the front.
The tiger had stretched himself full
length and allowed me to sit on his
back"