Los Angeles herald., 1905-03-19

the Proprietor to the Stranger, as they
Joined the Press Agent at the round
table in front Of the Arena. well, 1
suppose that 80 per cent of the people
who remember it think that It was all
a fake, but 1 tell you that l sweated
blood while he was loose. 1t was my
first experience in bringing animals to
this country and 1 had some boxing
kangaroos two young lions and pair
of lionesses and as the star attraction
Wallace, fine big brute, about fifteen
years old.
"He was already famous-or infa-
mous-in England, where he had the
score of three trainers to his credit,
and he was known as the 'mankiller.'
His last victim was a Frenchman, one
of the best known men in the business,
and he went in to subdue Wallace on
q bet. He won, and a remarkable per-
formance it was, but l won't tell you
about that now. He made just one lit
tie mistake: his vanity got the better
of him when he started to leave the
cage and he turned his back on Wal
lace to bow TO the audience. AS I said,
he won the bet. and it about paid his
funeral expenses.
after that the only man who could
go near Wallace was a halfbreed
American Indian from up near Cape
Cod-Broncho Boccaccio, he called him
self. don't know what the other half
of him was and forget how he hap
pened to come to our English show,
but anyway he was the only one who
could do anything with Wallace, and
that wasn't much. He would get into
the cage and chase him around a bit
and then jump out quick-always
backward. after seeing what happened
to the Frenchman. 1t took a couple of
days to get the animals through the
customs and in the meantime I rented
a stable in Eighteenth street to keep
them in. 1t was arranged in this way"
He took pencil from his pocket and
drew a plan of the building on the
white topped table.
Here in the front was the carriage
leading UP to the lofts; back of it were
the stable, three stalls and a loose
box. On one side was saloon and on
the other a carpenter shop, where
ordered a travelling den, built with roll
ers under it. l moved the lions up
there to let them rest bit after the
voyage and started to look for an en-
gagement. The best l could do was a
booking at a dime museum for month,
to open a week later. l had to take
lowish price, for the animals were not
known over here and 1 hadn't made
the name in the business that have
now, but 1 ordered a big nine-sheet
poster and trusted to luck to make
more out Of them later.
THE lions were in three cages in the
stable, along with a trotting horse
which had been sent to me for ship
ment to England, and the kangaroos
were in the loft. One morning my two
little girls walked over from the hotel
with me and went upstairs with their
nurse to play with the kangaroos, and
l went into the carpenter shop next
door to settle for the new cage, which
had just been delivered. A cockney
Englishman was in charge of the lions
and the horse, and 1 was waiting for
Broncho, who was camping with some
other Indians on the Bowery, to help
in shifting Wallace to the new cage,
but the Englishman thought he would
show his cleverness and, without au-
thority, tried to do it alone.
He threw a piece of meat into the
new cage, which he rolled up to the
old one, and when the doors were op-
posite each other he opened them. OF
course Wallace made a spring for the
meat, but he struck the edge of the
door, and as the keeper had neglected
to block the wheels 1t rolled away, and
the cockney gave a yell and bolted
for the stairs. There was loose lion
down stairs and the nurse and two
children in the loft.
"The first 1 knew of it was from the
screams of the nurse, who had
grabbed the girls and stood in the
QOOf lneN uStu W pass the nay III, yeil-
ing 'Fire!' and 'Murder!' but when
got to the street L knew that there was
hades to pay in the stable by the sounds
which came from it. We got a ladder
from the carpenter shop and hustled
the nurse and the children down to
the street, and then I went up to the
loft, while the cockney and the nurse
held the small door into the street,
which could not be fastened. until the
carpenter brought some planks, which
he spiked over it.
"A look into the stable convinced me
that / did not want to go down stairs,
for with one blow Wallace had turned
a thousand dollar trottlng hourse into
two dollars worth of lion meat and
he was crouched on the body, which
he had dragged from the STALL clawing
at its throat and drinking its blood He
was growing furiously at the other
lions who were roaring and throwing
themselves against the bars of their
cages. trying to break out and join in
the feast and Whan he saw me- he rose