The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-26
LIONS WITHOUTTEETH OR CLAWS
Some Circus Feats Tha Are Not So Dam
gerous as They Seem.

StToue - lucy StC"'
Not very long ago a lion tanner from
Hungary-not that there ere any lions
| thereof the name Of Max Ardenow came
to this country and thrilled many audiences
in the provinces by his daring in the lions
den. He had three Of theee animals and a
bear, and it is only fair to say that scarcely
! any man ever took such liberties with the
king Of beasts. He did not seem to care
what indignities he put them to and went
to great lengths to stir up their rage. Many
PEOPLE V thought he was brutal to them .
and few lion tanners had 80 much 6clat
while it lasted.
A curious fact, however, which came out
later was that the lions had not a tooth
among them. says the London Answers,
and their claws we're cut short between the
toes. They were all very ancient beasts,
and in fact we're fed on Stops out of
hours. Sometimes, when Ardenow went to
lengths that no self respecting lion could
put up with, he was sent flying across the
Gag by the blow Of a paw but that was
all. He had to stir them up a great deal
to make them look respectfully fierce, but
the end came when at Liverpool one of
the ions yawned rudely at the audience.
Several people noticed the lack Of teeth
and a smart Lancaster reporter ferreted
out the truth and published it. Such ridi-
Guile fell on Ardenow that he left the coun-
try soon afterward, and it is said he has
retired from the lion tanning trade. having
lone very well at it while his vogue was
al its height.
A great many people in this country a
few years ago held their breath nightly
while a marvellous rife shot performer,
who called himself "The Modern William
Tell, showed the most thrilling perform
ances with a rife that have ever been I aged.
His speciality was to shoot glass balls Of
the head Of his son, a boy Of II or so, and
he did it with the most marvellous precision;
not only straight from the shoulder. but
under it, backward between his legs and
aver facing the other way and shooting
by means OF a mirror. he picked of the glass
globe every time without even grazing his
sons scalp.
Some good people thought the show
should be stopped, as too p~erilous for de-
cency. 1t was not till William Tell" re-
turned to his native United States, how
ever, that the secret was exposed. The
glass balls contained ~detonators and were
plac ed on a couple Of tiny wires which
ran through a wig the boy wore, Inc which
led down one of his legs by way of a pocket
electrical accumulation. AS he stood with
his hands at the sides, a slight pressure
Of the fingers connected the two wires
together and completed the circuit and
exploded the little detonator. which burst
the ball TO pieces q" If by a bullet. 1be
cartridges in the rife were blank. One
night the ball burst prematnrely. and o
suspicious Pittsburg audience PUSHED the
stage and discovered the secret for them
selves.
You may possibly have felt a little
thrifty" at seeing a juggler keep six or
seven knives circling in a ,gltterins stream
have edges considerably biunter than
your domestic butter knife, and it would
do the performer no harm to catch them by
the blades instead Of the handles, il he
could.
70, however, for the handles are very care
fully weighted and are bound to fall lowest.
BY Watching you will observe that however
the knives are thrown the blades remain
nearly upright as they pass through the dir.
As to knives, by the way, the most ingeni-
GUS and unique safety contrivance in any
thrilling show was that invented and used
by two performers in the Worlds Greatest
Knife Act some years since. This was a
variation Of the ancient one in which a per-
son stands against a wall and another
throws knives all around him. leaving them
sticking in tie wall, In the case of the
Worlds Greatest &c. this was much i'm
proved, and the precision with which the
knives were sent, the distance they were
thrown from. and the force with which they
dashed into the wood, made the performance
very remarkable. The position Of the lady
when the knives we're hurled at her looked
terribly p~erilous,
The device was this: The screen against
which she stood was Of soft wood, covered
with thin paper. At the back of the screen
were several great horseshoe magnets, with
their spokes touching the soft wood, and be-
tween these, as it we're, stood the lady. The
magnets were magnetized by a very power
full electric current. Though the screen
. .cGEakgsd' them. IL did not overcome their
knife thrown toward them could defect at
all in its fight, but sped straight to the mag
nets poles and stuck in the wood that
shielded them. These poles thus circled the
lady all around, and with fairly straight
throwing she was as safe as IL she had been
plate armor. Any slight fault in the aim
was overcome by the pull" Of the magnets
as her husband hurled the knives at her,