The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-03-22
PROUD OF THEIR WHISPERS.

From the New York Tribune.
"It is all well enough" said Prof
Darling, Ito oblige many young wom-
en- who are anxious to have a lions
whisker as d sort of talisman, but l do
not propose to render the five animals
which possess positively useless"
Prof Darling stood in front of his
cage at Hagenbeck's with his big
brutes huddled up closely to the iron
bars waiting to be caressed. For some
time he has been pestered to death by
personal applications and by letters
asking for lust one lions whisker"
until his mail has become burden to
him, and, as he pulled the long bristle-
like apprendages from the mouths of
his lions, he said: ''Once lion loses
his whiskers he is practical
" ruined, not only SO far
as his appearance goes, but
for his usefulness as well. / know one
little instance of this" added the pro-
fessor. at was in the imperial zoolog-
zeal garden at SchonbrucG, in Ger
many. Carl HagenbeclI had purchased
at the command of the imperial gov
eminent one of the handsomest tigers
ever saw in all my life. He was most
beautifully marked and had long flow
ing whiskers. The beast was very
ferocious and had to be handled with
the utmost care. At Mr.. Hagenbeck's
request, ] went with him TO help put
the tiger in a permanent cage in the
zoo.
THE tiger Travelled in box with
bars in front, and when the destination
was reached the box was backed up
against the permanent cage and the
door opened to allow the tiger to enter,
! but bulge he would not We worked
at him for hours and nothing
would induce the animal TO move
out of his travelling cage. To
make a long story short, we
starved that animal for three days,
with pieces Of meat living just outside
of his cage, but it did no good We
then tried that remedy which is often
tried on WHIP beasts, although few peo-
pie know OF it, the hose-pipe. and we
drenched that tiger. but this did not
have any more effect upon him than
the use of an atomizer on woman
| hair.
Things were getting in very des-
perate state, for with starvation and
| chill Mr.. Hagenbeck feared that ne
would lose his tiger, Sc he determined
TO try that last resort-firc. A news
paper was lighted and thrust into the
cage. The tiger turned with spring
and grabbing the fire right IN
his mouth and as he did 50
singed of al Of his -hiskers-
| The Ere proved remedial and
the animal darted into the cage IN
/ tended for him, and you may believe
| me or not, but that animal with the
| loss OF his whiskers lost all OF his
pride. The imperial government paid
an enormous price for him. bat from
| the day that he lost his whlSkers he
| never would face the crowd % people
| who came TO see him. but would hide
his face in actual shame. ard finally
/ died. Mr. Hagenbeck. than whom
/ there IS no greater authority on scch
| subjects. declared shat he died Of =
I broken heart caused By the huzniliA-
ton cf his pride
"A Iion's or tigers whiske-s when
once taken OF never grow o1t
again These beasts she'd their hair
! oroe q year ordinarily. ali except TIE
whisker& Their shedding depends en-
:irclv upon the elm ate- and there j. .
/ rerv peculiar fact connected with the
shedding of this hair. and that Is that
| / never knew iloa OF a tiger or any
! ather animal of The eat x--~ei~. - -