The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-01

trampled to slippery mud by the feet of the crowd The trainer, man named 1 Daniels, aseended the short ladder lead 1 ing to the door of the bears cage, the soles of his boots clotted with mud from the mess underfoot.
 Ragged by the excitement of a riotous half drunken army of spectators and sleepy and i'll tempered after the rough road Journey of the night before the bears lay, ugly and forbidding huddled in heap. As the band struck up a sharp fanfare-the warning of the coming oe the master-contrary to training and as if preeoncertedly, not bear stirred. The next moment when Daniels entering and closing the door after him, slipped and fell heavily to the floor. a dozen of the big angry customers, every ferocious instinct aroused at seeing the conqueror prostrate, were on their feet. With a deep savage growl Shaggy, the grizzly, jumped to the fore with incredible agil- ity, and before the unfortunate man could move hand in defense, the bear was upon him. worrying him. As if starved and plunging Into long expect ed meal the mad monster sank his teeth into the mans side, and rolled him and tumbled him, and picked him up and i shook him as a terrier shakes a rat, while. contrary to rule in such experl-
 
 crowded nearer and nearer the cage for closer view thus making arrival of as- sistance almost impossible. Keepers and trainers tried in vain to but through the press of humanity while shouts and cries and yells threatened a riot and spurred the bear who. crazed by the taste of blood, bit and tore and paved and mangled his helpless victim until the owner of the show, a man of herculean ,iol m palr pInfnha6 his way through the crowd entered the cage, and attacked the bear. Three times the rescuer, dragging his burcen by the neck and fighting with his free arm, took the man from the bear, and each time, at the very door of the cage, the beast regained his prey, until ter rife, luckily placed blow across the nose sent him prostrate and stunned. Then the quivering, mangled, whimpering Thing, a brave man fifteen minutes be- fore, was borne on a shutter to a nearby inn, where he died, blessing his rescuer over and over again. a half dozen sur geons gazing helplessly on-a victim of a rogue supposed by some a rarely vic- ious and much maligned beast
 Hyena Is Despised.
 Formidable and treacherous though all zoo rogues are, by the profession none prODaDly IS so lnOIOuBnlN utSplSeu as lHc hyena, that striped or spotted, slope backed, bristly, loping, gawky, green eyed ghou that laughs in shrieks when she should cry, and whose iron jaws can crush and crunch bones that would seem too thick and tough even for those of a lion or tiger. Abject towards to the core, these creatures rarely attack man or beast unless they can grab treacher- ously from behind or unless they greatly outnumber the enemy as happened in the Barnum & Bailey show when, in the darkness an animal surgeon blundered into a hyena den in the circus winter quarters at Bridgeport. Conn.
 There was in this Noahs ark, along side a cage of hyenas, duplicate cage containing a young lion club. The little fellow. prized because one of an eXcep- tionally fine litter was indisposed and under treatment by the menagerie sur geon. who, one night, shortly before re- tirng. planned a last call on his patient. Anxious to finish his work the man took lantern, hastened to a cage, opened the door, and was in the midst of half a dozen snarling ugly hyenas. In the semi i-darkness he had mistaken the cages. With bristling hair, teeth gnash- ing snarlng, the beasts attacked, now darting forward to fasten their fangs and again lodging back to escape the blows from the lantern. while one ugly customer who had been struck stood in corner, loping up and down in one spot, giving vent to the most freakisf