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

and turn on their trainers. Such case was that of the splendid performing ti- ger, "Rajah," of the Frank C. Bostock animal show. Rajah was a mighty, handsome beast, measuring nearly twelve feet from tip to tip, with a face full of grim wrinkles and a bright smooth deep orange pelt. black striped as if painted. As a performer he had few equals; he was quick to learn and quick to obey and, best of all, he seemed to like his work. He had learned to sit on his launches like a poodle, to wrestle with his trainer, to jump through a hoop, and to play see-saw on a huge plank with another big tiger
 For five years Raiah YVES a model anil mal and then the inevitable change came. He seemed to losu interest. He became slow to obey Id sulked. A sulking tiger who threaters to turn adds spectacularly to the interest of a per formance and. always within limits, a trainer prizes an animal of this kind Rajah passed this limit one afternoon while performing in the big stage cage He got his cue but never budged and when the long whalebone trainers whip licked him lightly, back went the ears the mouth opened, the lips drew back showing long, yellow teeth, and, as the tail switched, the beast crouched for spring. It was high time to have 1t out on the spot. With whip in each hand the trainer cut the fine yellow right and left, and 1t seemed as if the tiger were cowed when, quick as lightning, he turn ed with an angry snarl let out a vicious blood-curdling cry. and shot through the air Down went the man, the tigers claws fastened in a shoulder, splintering the blade.
 When a tiger attacks a man, generally he tries to ''get all over him. at once. but, strangely, this beast kept his hold like a bull dog. dragged the yelling prey to a corner of the huge cage and made ready for defense. From all sides ran trainers and keepers with whips and club and bars and pitchforks, to fight the bood-mad brute; but 1t was not until the muzzle of a sx-shooter was thrust against his face and a singeing blank cartridge empted that he let go his hold to wander into an exhibiting cage, where he will finish his days.
 Another Type of Rogue.
 Another distinct type of a zoo rogue is the beast that goes wrong owing to acci- dental temptation-like Shaggy" col' league of Rajah. and an exceedingly in- telligent, tractable Rocky mountain grfz- zly, who reverted to savagery and turned man-kiler in a twinkling, owing to the unfortunate misstep and fall of his train- CT. SnaRSy was a DIE HdHuSonei gray old fellow, with a jungle-thick coat and numbering, awkward gait, and funny twinkle that made him particularly adaptable for his part of clown in a re- markedly trained group of fourteen bears. He had come under the hands of his teacher when but helpless cub, had never lost his liking for caresses, and although the mighties beast in the col lection was least suspected of being dan gerous Once, when a striped hyena hung to the ankle of his friend, he had run to the rescue, had cut loose right and left with his ponderous fore paws, and had bitten and torn and mangled the ugly beast to death before he could be beaten off. Among his accomplish ments were that of turning admirably grotesque somersaults and the more diff ficult feat of balancing himself on his hind legs on a three-foot wooden sphere. Not a scratch or a scar had his trainer to show for the years of work he had put in with the bear And yet. without an instant's warning, this same beast at tackled and injured his master so that, when rescued, he was semi-demented and so dreadfuly cut and lacerated that the surgeons decided it useless to try to save his life.
 The accident happened one winter af- ternoon in Hednesford, a colliery town in Staffordshires when the show was un- usually thronged as the result of a coal strike and when frost on the ground was