Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-21
WITH TWENTY-FIVE CALDER.
A Militia Omcer Tells q Story Of q
Mite Overcoming q Great Lion.

A Militia Omcer Tells o Story OF n
Mite Overcoming n Great Lion.
Some one in the group Of militiamen had
been showing target perforated at mile
by bullet so small as almost to appear
ridiculous.
And yet" said veteran who had seen
service. Il know an instance of lion be-
Ing killed with one of these small cat rifles
shooting a B cartridge. About all they are
good for, you know, is to shoot sparrows
with"
"A very commendable use, If they are
those nasty English sparrows," ventured
some one. whose sentiment was unanimous
ly aDplauded.
True enough continued the narrator.
But to the lion part of my story. A dozen
or more years ago 1 had gang of men
at work blasting rock In railroad cut
to shorten line. We were near a town,
and to this town came circus with wild
animals, including a lion which was no
forious for his ugly temper and his size.
VI course, parade was part of the show,
and 1 had given my men two hours or SO
OFF to go and see it. They were accom-
panied by my fourteen-year-old boy, who
left his gun, one of those cat rifles have
mentioned, with me. I had my office in a
shack near the cut. and here I was busy
on an engineering problem after the camp
was deserted by my force.
"As I sat In the shack, with its sides
the crowd had gone, I was disturbed by
the sudden yelp of small dog we had
with us, followed Immediately by a growi
that sounded like thunder. looked up,
and to my surprise and fear I saw, not
fifty years away. great yellow beast with
half the dog in his mouth. l thought at
once of the bad circus lion. and was sure
that he had escaped in some way, and that
nobody knew where he was. except myself.
and that was going to have scrap with
him, unless l could escape. This / tried
to do, but the lion saw me, and at once
came my way, at first with bounds and
then creeping as a cat does. The thing
now for me to do was to defend myself
but there was absolutely nothing I could
use except my boys rifle, and that was so
small 1t made me laugh to think of train
had, and I took 1t up and waited, with a
half hope that / might land the small bull
let i'm his eye and disable him for a few
minutes. anyhow.
Slowly he came toward me, and as he
crept nearer l noticed that he had got a
dynamite cartridge fastened to his foot by
a snap we were using on some Of them in
some experiments We were making. Some
careless workman had left the cartridge
and this snap had evidently caught to the
hair on the beasts foot, and he was drag
Ing it along with him. AS I noticed this
remembered that one entire end of it was
like big percussion cap, and l wondered
II l couldn't shoot my little bullet and hit
that part of the cartridge. 1t was my only
chance, and one in a million, and, dropping
behind a heavy chest in the shack,
sighted for the cartridge and waited for
the lion to come close enough to better my
chances, and at the same time not get too
close. in case hit the cartridge.
We'll. he kept coming until he wasn't
fifty feet away, and then l let her go. She
snapped like popping an inflated rose leaf
on the back of fair lady's hand, but in
an instant I went over backward, there
was tremendous explosion and 1 didn't
know any more till a crowd Of people woke
me up and asked me what the matter was.
They said the lion had escaped, and while
looking for 1t they had heard the explo-
sion and had run over to see what 1t was.
Fifteen minutes later I had gathered my
self together sufficiently to tell them what
had happened, and when one of the circus
men found a bunch of hair like a white
wash brush on top of my shack he iden-
titled 1t as the end Of the lions tall. That's
about all there was left of him, too, but
don't want to shoot any more lions with
cat rifles, I'm telling you"