The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-23
A STORY OF THE CIRCUS.
How a Whistle Made the Great Lions
Quail.
BE Had Learned the Trick in the Jun
gles-WhiIe the Trainer Was in the
Cage the Lights Had Gone Out.


Cage the Lights Had Gone Out.
From the Argonaut
In front of the entrance a "spielerp
stood on a starch box and beat upon a
piece of tin with a stick, and we weakly
succumbed to his frenzied appeals and
went inside We did this, I am sure.
partly TO please the ''spieler," who would
have been dreadfully disappointed if we
had not done so, but partly, too, to
please Toppan, who was always inter
ested in the great beasts and liked to
water them.
1t is possible that you may remember
Toppan as the man who married Victoria
Boyden, and, in so doing, thrust his great
ness from him and became a bank clerk
instead of an explorer. After he married
he came to be quite ashamed of what he
had done in Thibet and Africa and other
unknown corners of the earth. and, af-
ter a while, very seldom spoke of
that part of his life at all; or when
he did, it was only to allude to it as a pass
ing boyish fancy, altogether foolish and
silly, like calf-love and early attempts at
poetry.
- used to think was going to set the
world on fire at one time" he said once.
Il suppose every young fellow has some
such ideas. 1 only made an ass of myself.
and I'm glad Pm well out of it. Victoria
saved me from that
But this was long afterward. He
died hard and sometimes he would have
moments of strength in his weakness,
Just as before he had given up his career
during moment OF weakness in his
strength During. the first year after he
had given up ais career, he thought
he was co4tent with the way
things had come to be; but it was not so,
and now ard then the old feeling, the
love of thu old life, the old ambition,
would be Stirred into activity again by
seme sight, or sound, or episode in the
conventional life around him. A chance
paragraph in newspaper, sight of
the, a riZona deserts of sage and cactus, a
Elementary panic on a ferryboat some
timeS even fine music or a great poem
would wake the better part of him to the
desire of doing great things. AT such
times the longing grew big and troublous
within him to cut loose from it all
and get back to those places of the
earth where there were neither months
nor years, and where the days of the
week had no name; where he could feel
unknown winds blowing against mis- face
and unnamed mountains rising beneath
his feet; where he could see great sandy,
stony stretches of desert with hot, blue
shadows, and plains of salt, and thickets
of Jungle grass, broken only by the lairs
of beasts and the paths the steinbock
make when they 90 down to water,
THE MOST THRILLING THING
would recall all this to him just as a
couple of notes have recalled to you whole
arias and ogertures. But with Toppan it
was as though one had recalled the arias
and overtures and then was not allowed
to sing them.
We went into the arena and sat down
The ring in the middle was fenced in by a
great circular iron cage. The tiers of seats
rose around this band was playing in a
box over the entrance, and the whole in
terror was lighted by an electric globe
slung over the middle of the cage.
Inside the cage a brown bear-to me
less suggestive of wild animal than of
lap-robes and turner's signs-was dane
ing sleepily and allowing himself to be
prodded by person whose celluloid
standing collar showed white at the neck
above the green of his Tyrolese costume.
The bear was NANCY, and his steel muz-
ze had chafed him, and Toppan said he
was corrupted of moth and rust alike, and
the audience applauded but feebly when
he and his keeper withdrew.
OAfter this we had a clio wn elephant,
dressed in a bib and tucker and vast
baggy breeches-like those of a particu-
lary big French Turco-who had lunch
with the keeper, and rang the bell and
D drank his wine and wiped his mouth with
a handkerchief like a bed quilt, and
pulled the chair from underneath his
companion, seeming to be amused at it all
with a strange sort of suppressed ele-
phantine mirth.
And then, after they had both made
their bow and gone out, in bounded and
m "A tIa nd mir tr
all over, jumping up on their stools and
benches, wriggling and pushing each
other about, giggltng and excited like so
many kindergarten children on a show
day. / am sure they enjoyed their per-
Torrance as much as the audience did,
for they never had to be told
what to do, and seemed only
too eager for their turn TO come The best
OF IL all was that they were quite I'M
conscious of the audience and appeared to
do theiptrieks for the sake of the tricks
themselves, and not for the applause which
followed them And, then, after the usual
NJ programme of wicker cylinders, hoops and
pals was over, they all rushed off amid a
furious scrattling of paws and hlliping of
tails and heels
While this was going on, we had been
nearing from time to time a great sound,
nalf-whine, half-rumbling gutteral coughs,
mat came from somewhere behind the
rapidly decreasing intervals, and grew
lower in pitch until it ended in a short
pass grunt 1t sounded cruel and mena-
eng, and when at full volume the wood of
The benches under US
THRILLED AND vIBRATED.
There was little pause in the pro
gram1ne while the arena was cleared and
new and much larger and heavier para
phernaha We're set about, and gentle
man with well-groomed hair ana very
Shlny hat entered and announced 1.-The
worlds greatest lion-tamer." Then he
went away and the tanner came in and
Stood expectantly by the side of the en-
trance, there was another short wait and
'Ae band struck n long minor chord.
ANA then they came in one after the
olher, with long, crouching. lurchng
strides, not at all good-humoredly. like
the dogs or the elephant, or even the bear,
out with low-hanging heads, surly,
Watchful, their eyes cleaning with the
rage and hate that burned in their hearts
ana that they dared not vent. Their
loose, yellow hides rolled and rippled
over The great muscles as they moved,
aug the breath coming from their hot,
naII-open mouths turned to steam as it
struck the air.