Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-04-09
THE TIGER TAMER.


The journals Of the day characterized il as
tragic and chronicled IL in their list of
divers facts between the doings of run
away horse and the results of nocturnal
burglary
This tiger, the cause of it all (presuma-
bly,, that isl, Pedrotti had purchased when
very young at Calcutta and during jaunt
that he was making into India to re
mount" as the profession call it, his stock
of animals He had bought il thus young,
not even weaned from its mothers mann
mails, because he intended TO try with il an
experiment-in short, to see if education, a
special regimen and the habitual presence
Of man would not affect if not entirely
subdpe its natural ferocity.
Nor was this all note you, that Pedrotti
contemplated in hisexperiment. There was
Q still stronger process Of domination that
he counted upon adding to the others-that
which was used upon stations with such
excellent results Deprived of its verility,
the tiger would undoubtedly become more
manageable, which would enable him TO
abandon the old system Of cruelty in its
training.
The public were beginning to suspect the
truth The air OF the beasts was so detected
and stupefied when he cut them with his
whip TO force them through their hoops of
paper or circle OF flaming torches. Even
Tiberias, his great Abyssinian lion, had
died heartsick, like man, under the blows
that had conquered but had also broken his
spirit
This had been his plan and this his pro
ceeding when at last he embarked upon
the vessel that was 10 take him to India,
his tiger cub with him and a sleek and fat
goat, the foster mother that he had pro-
vided to supply it with nourishment ON the
way
Among the other travellers on this same
vessel, though Pedrotti did not see her till
the day she dragged herself TO his feet to
beg of him afavor, was poor and wretched
Indian woman with a newborn infant in
her arms
'She was i'll, +" she told him, sick unto
death, and in vain had she sought 20 nurse
it from her own barren and dried up
breasts Her milk was gone; the child was
starving; she would never reach Alden
alive, her destination, and where the father
of the babe, a sepoy, was then in garrison.
She had come TO beseech him TO share with
the infant, truly perishing with hunger
the milk of the goat. 1t was her last. her
dying prayer"
'Sapristil Yes, why notf' Pedrotti an
swered kindly; there's plenty and to spare
they are so littlel"
And this was the reason that two days later
be found himself with a child on his hands
a. well as an orphaned tiger The mother
had in truth been dying, and now she was
dead and had calmly passed away into the
great nirvana, her eyes fixed trustfully
upon the man who had come to her assist
anoe and lovingly upon the babe, thirstily
pulling at the breasts Of its horned nurse
side by side with his great cat
What did he do with iti Adopted il at
once, for the beast tanner had an eye to
business as well as kindly heart. He
knew that Niwah- Soukha, the name of the
little one, as they had learned from the pa
pers found in the woman's clothing, would
eventually prove a strong card in his hand.
The father when be had notified him, had
declined peremptorily to receive or provide
for the child. IL was the fruit OF an old
love already forgotten, and, to cut IL short,
be, Pedrotti, had been taken with a genu-
inc fancy for the tiny BeDgalese.
II would not be difficult to retain OF to
care for her. She would be simply part
of his menagere, and an exotic blossom
like this. reared and nourished with tiger,
would surely be a feature of his exhibition
original and fetching.
Fifteen years had rolled by since Niwah-
Soukha divided the food of infancy with
her foster brother. Already she was a
woman, and in her own sunny land would
long since have been both wife and mother
But everything was different in the cold,
bleak European countries that sheltered her
now, with their dull gray canopies of mist
instead of the blue and ardent heaven of
her own dear Hindoestan.
Sometimes-and who can wonder at itl-
the pangs of nostalgia assaiied her cruelty,
and sometimes the bitter resentment, the
passionate rancor OF a hopeless exile It
was then she entered the cage Of her child
hoods friend, to remain there for hours
lost in melancholy reflections upon this dis
tant, distasteful servitude and buried in
dreams. It was there, and there only, that
she encountered regard in which il seemed
to her she saw burning even vague re-
membrance of the hot and golden sun OF
the Ganges, the free and glorious life Of the
tungles
He, the beast alone could comprehend
the sufferings Of the woman, nourished by
the same milk, born under the same skies;
the same blood and fire ran in their veins;
the same nerves vibrated in their bodies.
Do need TO tell you that the wild beast
tanner had gained "a great deal Of money
through his two pensionnRiresS Their
names linked together upon the bills, their
feats performed in part, thronged the
house and swelled the receipts to goodly
sum.
Parbleui and the sight WAS one well
worth seeing-thot huge and seeminglyun-
conquerable beast showing his teeth and
roaring till the walls Of the vast canvas
covered edifice shook with the sound, hut
still docilely a. a sheep going through his
exercises at the bidding Of that singular
girl
His beautiful MISTRESS Yes, but Of q
beauty strange and Wild, and Of tint 80
brown it glowed like bronze, and with long
shining piaits Of hair Of Blush black that
cell to her knees-his mistress, who feshed