The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1894-03-08
THE KING H As PETS.
THIS REFERS TO THE LION AND LIT
TIE ANIMALS HsE LOVES.

Professional Trainer or Wild Animals
Tells Some Interesting Incidents - Tho
Feariessness OF Pigeons Among the Kings
of Beasts.
The way lions treat the tiny creatures
OF animal life is study. 1t may be that
there is some animal language, and that
the legend of the little mpuse which saw
ed the lions life by gnawing the net has
become known to the Genizens of the
jungle and handed down as animal folk
lore, or 1t may be that the king of beasts
has a positive contempt for anything ex-
tremely small, but it is nevertheless "a
fact that lions will not attack tiny ami
mails when they are put together. Pro-
fessor Edward Darling, IL an whom there
is no more profound student of lions
life and character in the country, has
made many curious experiments with
his five big beasts.
81 never saw lion kill rat or q
mouse" said Professor Darling, "and |
have had many of them put in the cage
with my five lions. My attention was
first drawn to this when was on my
way from London to Batavia, in Java,
on the ship Rotundo. hkd my five lions
with me, and in the quart er of the ship
in which they were hous ed were many
rats. One day I saw Lep, my favorite
lion, lying down and holding between
his paws very loosely M Pnster ship rat.
! thought perhaps that the cat instinct
in the lion had made hin catch it and
that he would probably play with it
awhile, then eat it, and so watched I'm
agine, however, my surpr Sc when saw
him loosen the rat. and the rat made no
attempt to get away, bu ran up and
over his gigantic paws al I'D played with
him. 5ss.. Jesse.
"We were long time q laking trip,
and every day this ships rat went into
Leo's cage, and the two played together
as gently as two little chill dren. Lmade
several attempts to eaptur o the rat, hop
ing that perhaps might take it ashore
with me, but could not succeed. and
Spromise you that old Leo did not like at
all my attempting to int rfere with his
pet. When we got to java, we had to
take the lion out, and Leo had to lose his
pet. He could have kill4 that rat o
thousand times, but he never did it.
There was another instance SubSe-
quent to this where Leo had o pet rat,
which makes me believe tn at the lion has
q real fondness for the I'd dent. 1t was
in 1881 in Calcutta. We W ere playing at
the Madam, one of those gigantic places
in far India, and when I vent in to see
my pets one morning | saw that Leo had
found another rat for q pet. My FIVE
lions were all together, but this rat would
play only with Leo. Thel % were many
other rats in the place, put the other
lions would not look at tn pm. It seems
to me to be fact that the hons consider
these little animals too sma III to be touch
ed. have known of rat 5 being found
dead in lions cage, but Z believe that
they were simply killed by the lion roll
ing on them or stepping on Them through
carelessness, but lions nevd r eat them.
SIN Hamburg once kne " a case Of o
sick tiger to whom it was d eemed neces-
sary to give some fresh, WI Urn blood to
tone up his system, and tb further this
end live rabbit was put in the cage
with the tiger. One woU Id naturally
suppose that the tiger woul d have killed
it instantly, but such, how over, was not
the case. The tiger played with the rab-
bit for days before he won aid touch it.
He finally killed and ate it.
'Now, my theory is this A lion, or
tiger, or in fact any wild animal kept
alone, grows very lonesonk be. In their
natural state wild beasts always run in
pairs. They love compani Onship, and
when put alone they become SO lonesome
that when another animal, even though
it is a rabbit, is put in IL e same cage
with them, they refrain froI killing it so
as to have its companionship. We have
heard Of many instances of men being
alone-shipwrecked, if you like-making
strange friends. Why not lion? 1t al
ways made me feel rather bad to think
of this tiger in Hamburg killing his little
friend. Still even men at { mes turn on
their friends. $780,
"Now, there is another pr culiar thing
shout lions," added Profes sor Darling,
"and that is that they vii not eat the
flesh Of fowl. You might tempt them
with canvasback duck or the daintiest
SQUAD, but they would refus 3 it. This is
a scientific fact. have II led it many
times. remember once ha wing a swan
which had broken its wing, We killed
it, dressed it carefully and threw it into
the cage of the lions, but they would not
touch it, and it finally had to be taken
out and thrown away. 1 ha We repeated
ly put pigeons alive into the cage, just
to see what they would DO. l have
thrown grain down among the lions, and
the pigeons have actually got down and
hoped around the big brutds, even hop
ping on their backs, the lion making no
attempt TO disturb them, even seeming
to enjoy their companionship.
''Now, there is something strange
about this which is rather dl ffcult to ex-
plain. To my mind it argue IS that lion
is not brutal in his instincts. Savage he
undoubtedly Is. Fierce at a p times, but
fierce with justice. belle e every one
of my lions has conscienf be. l know
every one of them knows the difference
between right and wrong. They know
their wondrous power and are charita-
BILE. They would never attB mpt to in
jure something which in n way could
do them harm. The study Of a lion-his
habits, character and capabil ities-is one
Of the most interesting kno =. It offers
field as yet comparatively unknown,
but the more one goes into it the more
time one takes to find out just what
lion is and the more he is COL WINGED that
he has rightly been named the king Of
beasts, New York Tribune. r.---z.ss..-sasss4