Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-12-20

cnewing at MS relatively uncovered
hind quarters. Roosevelt was unable
to hit back effectively, but finally
succeeded in dragging himself away,
uttering fearful howls and roars as
he did so.
| Roosevelt opened the fourth round
in sensational manner by leaping
high into the air and landing on
Peary's back. This worried the
rather slow bear, and Roosevelt was
left at liberty to dig into his back
for some seconds. BY terrific effort
Peary threw ROOSEVELT sideways off
his back, SO that the lion landed on
the floor with great crash.
The proprietor of the show aud
all the keeper were now around the
cage doing what they could to sepa
rate the fighters. The owner realized
that every tine the lion landed on
the bear he Knocked $50 worth of
value off him, not to speak of the
possibility that both would be killed.
AT first the keepers tried long poles
and iron rods on the raging beasts,
but these were utterly disregarded.
They smashed the poles like matches
and knocked the iron rods back so
that the men holding them were
injured.
Inthe fifth round the lion appeared
a little groggy. He painted heavily
and trembled as he hit out at Peary.
The latter pressed his opponent
steadily. lie tore large patches of
skin from his body and seemed very
nearly victor. Suddenly the lion
reused himself and gave the bear "a
fearful blow on his already much
damaged nose. Peary stepped back.
That was the signal for a brief re-
turn to their corners.
| The lion began hostilitiss in the
sixth round by fixing his teeth in
Peary's left hind leg. The bear
tried to shake him of but the lion
held on like death.
One of the keepers here intervened
by jabbings red hot iron against the
lions muz lie. He jumped back
snarling b, rribly at the human in
truder. TIE bear seized the oppor-
tunitY to throw himself on the lion
and bury lis teeth in the latter's
back. The keeper then turned the
iron on tn bear and the fight was
stopped foI few moments.
| Roosevelt began the seventh round
with Sfeat rush. He tore Pemy's
coat until he was nothing but a
shapeless mass of bloody, tattered
fur. The unfortunate bear tried to
hug the lion, thinking no doubt that
would stop his iabs, but the lion did
not care for this method of fighting.
Peary rose up on his hind legs and
Roosevelt dealt him a right paw
smash that tore most of the fur of
his chest.
i The two fighters danced around
and rolled over one another so rapid
| ly that the keepers were unable for
the time to make any attempt to
separate them.
|. The ninth round began with both
fighters groggy but still in the ring.
The lion had his right paw bitten
through. His name was nearly all
torn away. His back and hind
quarters were badly damaged. His
left leg was nearly useless. He could
not see ont of his right eye.
| The bear was much more badly
of. There was not space on him
as large as mans hand that was
not torn and bloody. His head was
in such deplorable condition that
ibis nose and eyes were unrecogniz-
able. All his paws were bitten
through. His back was literally
ploughed by the lions claws. Still
they kept on fighting. They growled,
roared, shrieked, moaned and NUT
tered as they did so.
/ The bear now accomplished what
he had been trying all along to do.
He got the lion in his deadly en-
brace. He got fair grip. But this
move proved after all to be Peary's
ruin.
The bear hugged the lion until the
bystanders could hear the feline
fighters bones creak and groan. The
lion gasped almost breathiess, but
still he managed to get his teeth into
| the under side of the bears throat,
one of the most vulnerable parts of
his body.
In this deadly embrace the tenth
round was fought out. The bear
kept on squeezing, the lion kept on
gripping with his teeth. The throat
grip was more than the bear could
stand. Slowly he relaxed his grip
and sank on his back beaten and
half dead.
The lion stood over him snarling
as if he meant to eat him. At this
moment a keeper stepped up and
smote Roosevelt between the eyes
with an iron bar. He then seemed
10 think he had hal enonob ord