The evening times., 1901-05-04
TANNING A VICIOUS LION
1 Famous Trainer Relates SNme
Of His Experiences
Vanity the Principal Characteristic
of the Benst-i Desperate Struggle
Betueen Two Huge Animals Ends
ir the Death of the YuuqJiSrcd-

The tanning OF a rer0cioUs lion is q task
which few men in the business care to
have forced upon them more than once in
lifetime said William Spencer. one Of
/ the most skiHfui and successful animal
/ trainers in the world, while talking with
some friends the other day.
I have had some experience in the bus
mess. and know what I am talking about.
( The lion that gave me the most trouble
/ that 1 ever had. is called Prince, big
/ and formidabIe-looking fellow, who gave
/ cne the impression that he would play
/ the dociIe role while one had his eyes on
/ him. but would bite a chunk Of flesh out
( of ones side or limbs as soon as the op-
poTtUnity to do SO presented itself. Prince
I was given this name because he was the
/ prince Of a lot Of about twenty lions,
( male and female, that our show had in
! one large compartment at BarTaooo.
( where we were getting the beasts into
I condition for the road. Until the arrival
of Prince, the boss of the lion family WAS
Rex continued Mr.. Spencer. who is con
nected with the Ringing Brothers circus,
soon to appear in Washington, and IN
which Prince VIII be seen
Now, I want to tell you something, fei-
lows that lion Rex was no sIouCh when it
came 10 putting on airs, or looking like he
would relish a few hundred pounds Of
raw meat Rex was fond of Iording 1t
. over the other eighteen lions and iioness-
: Cs in the enclosure. and spent much of his
: idle time in doing so Re was bigger than
! any ef the other males in the family and
/ possessed more fighting sand
We'll, one day Prince came We had a
! big, square room in which the lions were
allowed to exercise and play if they want
! cd to. I rather thought Prince was bad
/ looking beast-that is to say, he looked
! treacherous and as If he would stir up the
! bad nature of the other beasts who had
! become tame and halfway decent. 1 was
! right too for he had no sooner got in
TO this quiet lot 0. lions, who used 10
have a good time gossiping and fooling
around when he began to roar in the
most ferocfous way ever heard. That
/ got Rex on his hind feet. for if lions are
/ anything they are proud. There were all
the female lions standing around, with
| their ewes spread. and red-hot like, and
/ Rex. had to do something OF lose his job
/ as the head Of the family
Well the way those two big fellows
got after each other was a caution They
stood on their hind legs and wrestied and
howIed in a terrible way. All the other
! lions crouched on the floor and watched
part Most of the men in the barn acted
as if they had lost their wits
i picked up torch, lit it quickly. and
taking d heavy club in my other hand,
called to my assistant, Patsy Shepherd,
TO follow me I jumped into the centre
of the room, and began TO beat Prince,
the newcomer who had started the fight
I had 10 be very careful not to hit him in
the spine. because their backbone is very
tender and brittle, and I did not want to
main him, and / didn't want TO hit him
in the eye as an eyeless lion is not much
good in q show.
We'll, you can Just bet it kept me jump
ing around to keep myself from harm, and
after a few minutes I had TO give up the
effort to stop the battle IN his way Both
lions were covered with blood, and had
torn huge patches Of fur from each 9TH
ers neCks and pulled strips Of flesh from
shoulders and launches. We waved the
torches before their eyes, and once or
twice got them apart, but 1t was only
for minute or two They would go at
each other more fieTcely than ever, One
would think there were a hundred beasts
roaring at the same time. The bowling
was terrific
''As a last resort ] turned the hose on
the beasts. having managed to get the
water Just hot enough to break them
apart without chilling them Lions while
they are big and strengthening. easily
take cold, and when they do, pneumonia
IS likely Poor Rex. ] felt sOrIy for him
His lower jaw was badly torn, one leg
was broken and one side Of his body look
ed ike 2 raw steak. Prince was covered
with blood. and cousiderab bly, torn but he
was a bic 10 walk, and turning his heal
halfway around he slowly and proudly
walked TO a corner Of the room where he
TIs-Tf ar
looked upon his rival with an expression
Of contempt
We got Rex on a litter and took him to
the hospital. We had to give him chloIo-
form u order TO stitch his jaw and side,
and yut his leg in Splinters. II took so
long for him 70 return to consciousness
t'lat ! got little scared. but after stand
ing him on his head couple of times so
as 10 send what little blood he did have
left into his head ne came around all
right. He was never the same Rex again.
lions are as vain as a society woman
To be thrown doEn and r1auled around
the way he was before everybody. after
he had been their boss for so long broke
his heart ! gave him the best Of every
thing, and petted him a whole lot but II
was no use Nobody else could go near
him. He acted as If he thought every
body was his enemy but me. l gave him
the choicest bits Of young heifer meat and
marrow bone, but It was no use. He
didn't hold his head up the proud way of
old times any more He just mOped
around IN the back part of the
cage and finally one day he committed
suicide When the feeding man went
around he raised the small door at the
end Of the cage and hooked it up, while
he stopped down TO take the hip bone of
meat out of the pan at his feet Rex
had been driven back to the end of the
cage while this was being done.
"A steel chain had been attached to
his neck and q staple in the center of the
cage. 50 that he could not stir around
much until his broken leg became strong
As the man stopped over the meat pan
Rex made lunRe at the narrow opening I
in the iron grating of the cage and man
aged 20 get his body through. where Il
hung over the side, the hind feet just
touching the ground. The keeper gave
the alarm and ran for club l heard
the noise and hurried IN. but IL was too
late Rex instead OF settling on the
ground with his hind feet. had drawn
them up under his body. and coolly chok-
ed 70 death. Ii made me feel so bad I
don't think ] got good night s sleep for
a month. All the boys felt badly. too.
for Rex had been with US for Several
years. and was an all-around good sort
Of a lion He was buried back Of the an
imal quarters in our little WISCONSIN
home. and square stone monument
marks the head Of his grave If any of
YOU were up there now, you would see
some WitheTed flowers over the spot
where ReS was buried On March every
have bunch of fresh flowers placed over
the bones Of dear old Rex
Mr. Spencer.S eyes moistened as he told
the story OF Rex's death
Continuing his narrative about Prince
he said
I get along well with the Prince. and
think he is the finest looking beast we
ever had but so long as I live. il viii be