The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-19
CHASED By A GORILLA.
Ballet Girls Barely Escape Capture by
Hiding in a Property Box.
E,r,,.,, che g1f,f1aFelrhfa Fsvosa

From the Philadelphia Press.
Jumbo was Chiko is.
The great pachyderm was the greatest
single attraction Of his day, but simian
has now taken the place once filed by the
| pride Of the late PIT, Barnum.
Chiko's prodigious strength stood him
in good stead when he effected an escape
! in Binghamton two weeks ago.
His keeper, Antonio Markus, had left
! the door of his cage with only a single
| fastening, and as soon as Markus had
gone to dinner Chiko wrenohed the lock
from its socket, walked out into the air
of freedom and stood careleSsly survey
! ing his new surroundings.
Sturdy canvaSmen, animal trainers OF
superb courage and red lemonade and
peanut tiends, who are always supposed
! to have their nerve with them" fled in
every direction as from a Kansas cyclone,
and the elephants trumpeted and the
other animals set up howl that made
scene of pandemonium difficult to de-
scribe. Chiko, enboldened and encOur-
aged by the reign of terror he had crea-
ted. uttered a quick succession of cries
that thrilled every one within hearing,
and then started down the menagerie
tent.
Meanwhile the employees were hiding
under bales of hay, on top of cages, be-
meath the tarpaulins, in trees outside and
| locked in wagons.
The gorilla then started for the front
door, but changed his mind Just before
going out and retraced his steps to the
candy stand, where he sampled the glu-
coSe kisses, the mOth-prOof ginger cakes
and the beautiful pink tinted lemonade
Feeling satisfied with the disturbance
he had kicked up he started to recon
hotter the main tent where the great cir
Gus performance and spectacle of Colum-
bus are given
He first caught sight of the lofty rigging
used by the famous Silbons in their great
aerial act, and quick as a flash climbed
the seventy-five foot center-pOle, ran out
on the cross-arm and surveyed the walls
of Grenada as they faced him on one side
of the auditorium.
He then climbed down on the long trap
eze-bar, from which Walter Silbon makes
his triple somersaultS in mid-air, and
while nonchalantly swinging in space he
saw two pretty italian ballet girls chew
ing gum and swapping condolences over
In the dreSsingrOOm entrance.
His eye grew bright with the enthusi-
asm of a new idea; he set up a series of
deafening cries, came down the long rope
to the ground in less time than it takes to
tell it, and started on dead run for the
! y
Fortunately the girls saw him coming,
and jumping from their seats, beat the
| hastiest kind of a retreat into the dress
ing-roOm, where they found a huge prop
erty box standing open, as it had been
unpacked for the afternoon performance.
With a presence of mind that perhaps
saved their lives they jumped into this
box more quickly than they ever kicked
| themselves into popular favor in the front
row of the ballet, and closed the lid.
1t is reported by some African travel
! ers that the gorilla is in the habit of
| stealing native women and carrying them
off to captivity, where they are kept
| prisoners, and this may account for the
| look of grievous disappointment that came
over Chiko's savage countenance when
! he found the dressing room tent empty
and realized that he would be unable to
! enlarge the responsibilities of his house
| hold, even if this was his intention
But the fright of the ballet girls did
not end here, Tor this disenfranchised
man walked over and sat down on the
very box wherein the girls were hiding
While cogitating on the mysterious dis
! appearance, his keeper, Antonio MarkuS,
who had heard of the escape, ran in
! search of his ferociOus charge.
Markus held out banana to Chico as a
! tempting inducement to good nature, and
the beast, evidently convinced that the
! ballet girl of the present period was too
| fly a creation for his wild African charms
! of fascination, threw his great arms
around his keepers neck as meekly as did
! the prodigal son and kissed him
Markus fed Chiko the banana and then
! taking hold of one of his great brawny
arms, as a man would his best girl he
escorted him back to the cage to the great
relief of the 900 people of the Barnum and
Bailey salary list.
New fastenings have been put on
| Chiko's iron-barred home and no matter
| how hot the weather gets he will have to
be content with the summer breezes that
| happen to blow through the menagerie.
Next Sunday morning the show arrives,
and ChikO will have an opportunity to
realize how many stages of evolution he
and his will have to pass through before
he can hobnob with the intellectual Four
| Hundred of Philadelphia.