Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-01

A Tiger Died OF a Broken Heart Be
cause He Had Lost Them-Shedding
at the Red Sea.
From the New York Tribunal
"It Is all we'll enough" said Professor
Darling, "to oblige many young women
who are anxious 70 have . lions whisker
as sort Of tslismsu, bat do not propose
to render the FIVE animals which possess
positively useless"
Professor Darling stood In front Of his
cage at Hagenbeck's with his big brutes
huddled up closely to the iron bars walt
ing to be cars esed. For some time he has
been pestered to death by personal appi-
cations and by letters asking for 'just one
lions whisksr" until his mail has become
burden to him, and, as he pulled tie
long bristls like spperdsges from the
mouths of his lions, he said: "once lion
loses bis whiskers he is practically ruined,
not only SO far as his appearance goes, but
for his ueefulDess as well. / knew one
little instance of this, ;" added the profes-
sor. ''It was In the Imperial Geological
Garden at Schonbrunn, in Germany. Carl
Hsgenbeck had purchased at the command
OF the Imperial government one of the
handsomest tigers / ever raw in all my
life He was most beautifully marked and
had long flowing whiskers. The besst was
very ferocious and had TO be handled with
the utmost care At Mr.. Hsgenbeck's re-
quest, went with him to help put the
tiger In the permanent cage In the EDO.
"The tiger travelled In q box with bars
in front, and when the destination wss
reached the box was backed up sgainst the
permanent cage and the door opened to al
low the tiger to enter, but bulge he would
not We worked at him for hours and
nothing would inducs the animal TO move
ont of his travelling cage. To make q
long story short, We starved that animal
for three days, with great pieces of meat
lying just outside of his cage, but IL did
no good We then tried that remedy
which Is often tried on wild beasts, al
though few people know of 1t, the hose
pipe,' and We drenched that tiger, but this
did not have any more effect upon him
than the nee of an atomizsr on q womsn's
hair.
Things were getting In a very desper-
ate state, for with the starvation aid chill
Mr.. Hsgenbeck feared he would lose bis
tigsr, 30 he determined to try that last re-
sort-hre. newspaper was lighted and
thrust into the cage. The tiger turned
With Q spring and grabbed the FIRE right In
his mouth, and as he did 30 signed off all
of his whiskers. The fire 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 sll of his pride. The
Imperial government paid an enormous
price for him. but from the day thst he
lost his whiskers he never would face the
crowd of people who came to see him, but
would hide his face in actual shame. and
finally died. Mr.. Hsgenbeck, than whom
there is no greater authority on such sub
j.cts, declared that he died Of q broken
heart caused by the humiliation of his
pride.
"a lions or tigers whiskers when once
taken off never grow out again. These
beasts shed their hair once q year ordina-
rily, all except the whiskers. Their she'd
ding depends entirely upon the climate,
and there lie . very peculiar fact connected
with the shedding of this hair, and that is
that never saw . lion or o tiger or any
other animal of the cat srecies to go
through the Red eea without shedding. /
have seen animals shed at Suakim and
come out with hair as fresh and glossy a.
silk. and yet going through the Red sea
they viii shed again. No one can account
for 1t. but 1t is fact nevertheless This
explains to you" said the professor, as he
gave parting pat to his pet Leo. "why 1
have been accused of being uugallaut In
not giving whiskers from my pets to la
dies for charms. but do not propose to
have my liens Injured or their pride hu-
inflated"