The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-17
| FAST FRIENDS.
BY Alvan F. Sanborn.

uSS I 10 S1olSo W -
beautiful, full-grown AbySSinian lion
ess named Imperatrice and a small
shepherd dog named Coco. The init
macy between Coco and Imperatrice
began far back, when the one was
roly-poly puppy and other tumD-
ling whelp on the after-deck Of Nile
River steamer. They have never,
from that time to this, been separated.
except as Coco has been sent out for
an occasional promenade beyond the
cages limits, and their friendship has
never for an instant faltered.
Every day, and several times day.
they give a voluntary performance
which compares farorably with the
performances given By regularly or
ganized troupes of trained animals,
and which invariably draws to the
cage q number OF eager, tiptoeing
spectators.
The dog begins by circling with pro-
voking barks about the lioness, exact
" as he or any other dog might circle
about a cow in pasture. The lion
ess receives the affront cow-fashion,
with lowered head, creeps toward her
challenger stealthily, cat-fashion, halts
and crouches as if to spring-but does
not. Then the two beasts, eye to eye,
zigzag comically around each other
like a pair of pugilists watching and
working for an opening; the loness
self-poised and supple' but ungainly
from lack of space; the dog nervous,
nimble and alert.
This capering is kept up for several
minutes, at the end Of which the dog,
tired Of futile manoeuvring, attains
the lioness with a single flying leap
the program at this point never varies
and grips her by the skin OF the
back, side or chest, or by the ear
wherever, in fact, his teeth happen to
close and tries with all his little
might to throw her. The lioness, with
the adorable restraint and Infinite gen.
tleness of a considerate father making
q show of wrestling with his small
boy. or Of q great, loving st. Bernard
dog playing with baby or puppy,
allows herself to be toppled over on
her back.
As she lies thus, PROSTATE, in feigned
defeat and helplessness, the victor
plants his forefeet solidly on her silk
en- white stomach, and with nose we'll
in air, proudly awaits the applause
that Is sure to be accorded by the peo-
ple beyond the bars; after which-is
It that, for the moment. he believes
the monster is really slain?-he seizes
the lionesss tail in his teeth and tugs
Justify thereat, just for all the world
as If he were dragging a carcass on
the field.
This sham fight is now and again
supplemented by q sort of hide-the-
thimble game in which hunk of the
lioness's dinner meat serves for the
thimble. and such holes as muzzles
can poke in the straw with which the
cage floor is strewn serve for the hid
ing places.
When they are not engaged in either
of these ways, the pair may be seen
softly fooling and toying. licking each
others coats and faces, or sleeping
cuddled together with their fore paws
around each others necks-veritable
models OF gentleness, self-forgetful-
ness and good-fellowship. and above
all, past masters in the difficult art Of
taking joke.
Imperatrice is always docile and
contained, except when some one OF
the crowd Of gazers does something
to annoy her little comrade. Under
the slightest injury or insult to Coco
she become another creature; growls
ominously, switches her fanks with
her tail. and assaults the cage bars in
q way to make one tremble for their
frmness, while her chops drip foam
and her soft, velvet eyes flash fame.
She loves Michel, her keeper, who Is
kind to her, although firm and master
full, and would defend him doughtily,
in all likelihood, if she beheld him Ii
distress, but she loves Coco more. OF
this, her preference for the dog over
the man, she gave a striking, almost
tragic, proof q year or so ago when all
occasion arose which forced her-at
least to her limited animal intelli-
pence it seemed to force hcr-to choose
between them.
The three. Michel, Coco and Impera-
trice. were in the cage together. Coco.
in q sudden fit Of perversity, did a
thing he knew very we'll nc should not
do. Michel, with never thought Of
the possible effect upon Imperatrice.
gave him a richly deserved whip-cut
which sent him into corner yelplng
and ashamed. Thereupon, with a
. spring there would have been no such
thing as eluding, even if 1t had been
foreseen, Imperatrice set her teeth IN
Michers right shoulder and bore him
to the floor.
Had he grappied. unarmed as he
was, with the infur:ated beast. tried
to appease her with soft words, or
swooned from fright, Michel might
never have left the cage alive. An or
dinary man would have done one or
the other Of these things and per-
ished. But Michel was not an ordl-
nary man. Sure and swift as was the
spring of the lioness. his thought was
rcarcely less swift and sure. 1t was
as if the cause for the creatures rage
was flashed through his brain by light
ming. He understood instinctiyely, as
well as he could have understood by
reasoning for hours about it, that I'm
peratrice was rebelling for Coco's
sake, not for her own, and that the
eo1o wav to save himself, If way in