Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-31
4 Gagged Lion.

IN 'front.' or the entrance q Splet er'
stood on starch box AID beat upon
piece Of tin with a stick, and W,
weakly succumbed to his frenzied ap
pealS and went inside. We did this
L am sure, partly to please tn
"spieler," who would have been dread
fully disappointed if we had not dom
so. but partly, too, to please Toppan
who was always interested in tn
great beasts and liked to watch them
1t is possible that you may remem
: Der Toppan as the man who married
Victoria Boyden, and, in so doing
thrust his greatness from him and be
came bank clerk instead of an ex
plorer. After he married, he came It,
be quite ashamed of what he had don,
in Thibet and Africa and other un
known corners of the earth. and
after while, very seldom spoke o.
that part of his life at all; or, when ht
did, it was only to allude to it as 6
passing boyish fancy. altogether fool
ish and silly. like calf love and early
attempts at poetry.
Il used to think l was going to SCI
the world on fire at one time" ht
said once. Il suppose every youns
fellow has some such ideas l only
made an ass of myself, and I'm GLAD
I'm 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 weak.
ness, just as before he had given up
his career during a moment of weak
ness in his strength. During the first
years after he had given up his career
he thought he was content with the
way things had come to be; but it was
not so, and now and then the old feel
ing, the love of the old life, the old
ambition, would be stirred into activ-
ity again by some sight, or sound. or
episode in the conventional life around
| him.
chance paragraph in a newspaper,
sight of the Arizona deserts of sage
and cactus, momentary panic on a
ferryboat, sometimes even fine music
or a great poem would wake the bet
ter part of him to the desire of doing
great things. At such times the long
ing 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 names; where he could feel I'M
known winds blowing against his face
and unknown mountains rising be-
ha
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 steinbok make when
they go down to water.
The most trif1ing thing would recall
all this to him, just as a couple of
notes have recalled to you whole arias
and overtures. But with Toppan it was
as though one had recalled the arias
and overtures and then was not al
lowed to sing them.
We went into the arena and sat
down. The ring in the middle svas
fenced in by a great, circular iron
cage. The tiers of seats rose around
this, band was playing in box over
the entrance. and the whole interior
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 f,nriers' signs-was
dancing sleepiiy and allowing himself
to be prodded by a person whose cellrl-
loid collar showed white at the neck
above the green of his Tyrolese cos
tune. The bear was NANCY and his
steel muzzle had chafed him. and Top
pan said he was corrupted of moth
and rust alike, and the audience ap-
plauded but feebly when he and his
keeper withdrew.
After this we had a clown elephant,
dressed in bib and tucker and vast
baggy breeches-1ike those of a par
ticularly big French Turco-who had
lunch with his keeper, and rung the
bell and drank his wine and wiped his
mouth with handkerchief like a bed
quilt. and pulled the chair from under
meath his companion, seeming to be
amused at it all with a strange sort Of
suppressed elephantine mirth
And then after they had both made
their bow and gone out, in bounded
and tumbled the dogs, barking and
grinning all over, jumping UP on their
stools and benches, wriggling and
pushing one another about. giggling
and excited like so many kindergarten
children On a show day. I am sure
they enjoyed their performance as
much as the audience did, for they
seemed only too eager for their turn to
come. The best Of it all was that they
were quite unconscious Of the audi
ence and appeared to do their tricks
for the sake of the tricks themselves.
and not for the applause which fol-
lowed them. And then, after the usual
program of wicker cylinders, hoops
and balls was over, they all rushed off
amid curious scrattling of paws and
filliping of tails and heels.
While this had been going on we
had been hearing from time to time a
great sound, half whine, half rumbling
cultural cough, that came from some
where behind the exit from the cage
1t was repeated at rapidly decreasing
intervals, and grew lower in pitch I'M
til it ended in a short bass grunt. It
sounded cruel and menacing, and
when at its full volume the wood of
| the benches under us thrilled and vi
brated.
There was q little narsa in tho pro