The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-17


surrounded, so to speak. by wild animals.
For the past 80 years l have been on the
most intimate terms with lions and tigers
and panthers and leopards and bears and
hyenas and elephants, and all sorts or
other animals. / have trained them, eaten
with them, slept with Them petted them
and fought them by the hundreds in that
time.
l have had charge Of the biggest men
ageries in this country and / have had en-
tire charge of the animals in Barnum u
Baleys show, writes George Conklin IN
the New York World. Before coming to
Barnum, seven years ago, l was with Cole,
and before that with O'Brien.
BITTEN BY A LION.
In all my experience with animals have
only been bitten once, and that was owing
to my own carelessness. lioness bit me
in the thigh one day when l was in her
cage. / had my back to her and was teas
ing a lion at the time She fastened her
teeth in my thigh from behind, and the
wound laid me up for three weeks. Wnen
she grabbed me hit her on the nose, ana
she let go. Yes, she had tasted my blood,
but that made no difference.
This talk about lion or a tiger becoming
unmanageabe after it tastes blood is non
sense. i would soon go into cage all
covered over with blood and let the AMI
mails lick it off as any other way. Lions
and tigers won't attack man in cage,
or out Of it either, unless they are hungry.
man can go into a cage of lions or tigers
without danger of being hurt if he only
understands the animals and is not afraid
of them. They may be just caught-not two
months out Of the forest or jungle, and yet
they will not attack man.
There never was a lion or tiger that
was not afraid of a man. Let them alone
and they will never attack a man SO long
as he keeps his face towards them. | am
speaking now of those that are wild. The
w SnrnO a
keeper from behind. 1 can teach the wild
est animal that was ever Gagged not to
attack me under any circumstances, and
won't take more than half an hour or so
to give the lesson.
AS DANIEL IN THE LIONS DEN.
I had an exciting time once, however,
when 1 was with OBrien's circus and
moral menagerie." l had 40 cages of ami
mails under my charge. The cages were all
painted with scenes from the Bible. On
the cage where l used to perform with
the lions-there were four of them-there
picture of Daniel in the lions den.
I used to be bound hand and foot and
thrown into the cage with the four lions.
1t a good act and took we'll.
One night one of the lions gnawed out
of his cage and got in among the elephants.
The elephants became excited and the lion
sprang on the back Of little elephant.
The little elephant trumpeted and kneeled
down, and that woke UP the Waterman.
was sent for l took pitchfork and jab-
bed at the lion. and he let so and sprang
for a big elephant close by. The big ele-
plant was called Queen Anne-they' We
changed her name to Empress and she is
still in the business.
She grabbed the lion with her trunk and
threw him from her about 20 feet. He fell
in heap of bones which came from the
meat with which the animals were fed.
The bones were under the stairway leading
to the hay loft and a man was asleep up
there. l got into the hay loft from the
outside of the building and fastened the
trap door down. Then l got down and tack
led the lion. l got a shifting box close up
to where he was and then l got into the
box. 1t had a door on each side. 1 teassd
the lion and 1Iade him SO mad that he came
for me. 1 had close shave getting out
at one side while he got in at the other, but
l succeeded and Gagged him. l think that
the most exciting time l ever had with
q lion.
ELEPHANTS MOST DANGEROUS.
The elephants are by far the most dan
gerous in the menagerie. They can never
be depended on. One bad elephant is worse
than a dozen lions. They VIII try to kill
their keepers when they get ugly. and when
elephant is thoroughly enraged he will
stop at nothing. Every year all male ele-
plants who have reached a certain age will
have a spell of viciousness. This period
period keeps up for a month to six weeks
and at such times the elephant is Away.
very dangerous. Lions and tigers will obey
half dozen or more masters, but elephant:
will only obey one.
One man is sufficient to look out for
herd of elephants. OF course he has help
ers but he alone is the master of the ele
plants. The keeper, when an elephant i:
going to become vicious, prepares for II
by claiming the big beast. The elephant
Tip that was killed up at Central park
could have been kept in this way, ant
would have got over his ugly fit in short
time. The idea of killing elephant al
such times is absurd. No frst-class ele-
plant man would have thought of such q
thing.
When I was with Cole he had a big ele
plant named Sampson. Sampson was near
ly as big Jumbo and was every bit as
gentle We used to carry band on his
back. Afterwards we made feature of the
parade to have a whole lot of children!
or more--on his back. Cole used to adver
tise marriages on Simpsons back under The
canvas.
One day noticed that Sampson showed
signs of an ugly temper, and made up my
mind that I would have to chain him W
for a few days. On this day he had II
children his back, and they had JUS
got off and were going into the ten
when Sampson showed his temper.
He came for my cage and upset it.
crawled out, but before 1 could do anything
Sampson had attacked the horses attache
to the cage They were four big grays, bu
he knocked them down and began buttin
them with his big mead ana trampllnS OF
them. 1 got pitchfork and jabbed it int
Sampson's hind quarters. He turned on m
and l ran behind lot of cages. He cam
after and knocked over eight of thu
cages trying to get at me. Mr.. Cole wa
with me, and 1 told him to get me hors
or the elephant would wreck the whole
show.
He got me the horse and 7 attracted
SIMPSONS attention and made him take
after me- His fore feet were chained
together loosely, and another chain rar
from the middle of the foot chain to
collar about his neck. / led him alons
the railroad track in hope that his chains
would catch in the ties and throw him
but 1t didn't work. He kept right afte
me. At last 1 procured a shotgun. will
a lot of cartridges loaded with buckshot.
1 fired II loads of buckshot into the ele
plant before I could turn him. When h
at last ran l fired three more into him
Then / got him between two fiat car
and he gave up. 1 made him lie down ant
get up again several times and put hin
through some of his tricks Then 1 led hin
back to the tent. Cole told me that h
wanted me to chain the elephant down ant
get lot Of men and give him a warming
l said it wasn't necessary, as he was al
right then, but Mr. Cole insisted
That night in obedience to orders,
threw the big fellow, and couple of dozel
men beat him for an hour. Then we tool
red hot irons and burned his mouth ant
trunk He couldn't eat for tire
weeks, but he didn't try any NOR
foolishness that season. Sampson wa
sold to Barnum & Bailey after
wards, and was burned at Bridgepor
in the winter quarters there. He was