Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-06-10
The Lions View of It.

'NeXtr' New York Sun.
The Lions View of 1t.
''You are a very utable-looking
old lion. How do you account for being
so dreadfully out of repair? Where
your name gomez"
''Thorn bushes" said the seedy old
beast, with a lazy yawn.
"And what's that scar"
Spear was the laconic reply.
"Come, wake up; were you always SO
indolent?"
''Ask Tippoo lib"
''Why Tippoo Tib?"
NEARLY ate him once"
"YOu did? How was it you let him
gog,
sCome, do wake up. The keeper says
you've been asleep all day. What was
Tippoo lib doing when you nearly caught
him z"
"Well," said the ragged animal, with
a gesture that looked uncommonly like a
wink, she told Stanley that he was hunt
ing me. Funny hunting, Ell? He was al
ways ahead and / was behind him."
And at the recollection of the hunting
the lion roared aloud. you've never
hunted lions, | suppose"
no." | replied, "never."
when there are only Arabs and slaves"
''Tell me what happens"
"Why, you see, whenever we ind
there are a lot of men collecting in one
place without a regular camp, or cattle
or goats or women, we guess there is go
ing to be a lion hunt.
$50 we get together, as many OF us
as can, and lie around in some rough
ground where there are plenty of melons
to hide in and thorn bushes, and we wait,
and soon we get hungry.
"By and by the men come and they
find one of us. And then they post them
slaves all about and signal to each other
with their arms or clothes to show where
the lion is. and all the time we lie low
and watch them watching it.
''Then some slaves are sent in with
dogs to turn us out. They beat drums
and call us names. But we don't take
any notice of that.
''Then they send in more, and some
of them have guns which they fire off.
But we all keep quiet till the lion they
are watching PUSHES out.
Sometimes they have hit him with
a bullet, or perhaps he is only too angry
to keep quiet any longer, and out he
gins. All the dogs bark, and all the
slaves shout, and the Arabs begin firing
all together.
THAT is our time. Out we rush, roar
ing as loud as we can, and what with the
dust and what with the noise, it's really
impossible to say what happens. But we
knock over as many slaves as we can,
and the rest all run away, and, all of a
sudden, just as quickly as it began, the
Scrimmage is over.
1.-The dogs have all vanished, the
Arabs are on their horses, riding round
and round as hard as they can, and the
slaves are running as fast as their legs
will take them out of sight. Then we
all hide again among the wild melons
and the thorn bushes and if lion has
been killed the Arabs drive some slaves
back and they tie it to a pole and carry
it away to their camp.
"It always ends in the same way.
There are about 100 of them and they
get perhaps one lion among them and
there are five or six of us and we get a
slave or two apiece. For the Arabs do
not trouble about the slaves"
''Then you don't often catch any of
the Arabs %
mo. They keep near their horses; as
soon as they have fired they mount and
fire off-just as Tippoo lib did, but Che
didn't tell Stanley l nearly had him and
the tip of his white burnouse streaming
out behind him as he rode actually
Tipped my nose."
''But travellers say that YOU run away
from men when you meet them. How
is that.''
1T, Travellers ;s say say o., all sorts of funny
THAT'S true. But don't you run
away?'
"Well, you see their habits are so diff
ferent from ours. We like to sleep all
day and hate any eXertion after our
meal, for we only eat once, at night,
and they are most active after eating,
which they seem to do pretty nearly
every day, judging from the number of
times they stop and light fires and cook.
I've often smelled them cooking.
''As soon as they're done they get up
and go marching on. Then they meet
us. We are sleepy and lazy. They are
wide awake and all agog. So we get out
of their way. [ know l never felt in
clined for scrimmaging in broad daylight
with half an antelope inside me. Would
you"
''Well, perhaps not"
81 should think not. Now, if travel,
ers would only travel by night when were
all up and hungry, they'd find we wouldn' /
run away. l should think not, indeed.
So you see it's all matter of habit, ism t
it?'I
But you have your turn when the
travellers make their camps for the nigh! p
Rather! And you can't imagine what
fun we have sometimes in a camp with
the goats all tied together in punches
with ropes and the cattle tethered to the
wagons. On a dark night, with high
wind blowing, it's a regular-what dye
call it? nic?-yes. There's nothing
like SO much as goats. They're de-
licious."
But why don't the travellers fire at
you?"
"Oh! They do. But they can't see,
and it does not do us any harm. | think
it's our roaring that upsets them. We
always roar as much as we can when
we get inside a camp: and I've nearly
choked myself with trying to eat and roar
at the same time-and laughing.
'Ah! 1t was goats that did it. l
never could resist goats.
''One afternoon there was great hulla>
balloo close to where / was lying asleep,
Il got up and looked out, and there was
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