The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-07
STRIPED ANIMAL
 HAS MEAN NATURE Circus Man Talks of Hyena and
 Tiger EAT THE FEEDING HAND Big Ringing Circus Reaches the City Saturday Morning-Three-MiIe Parade-Why the Zebra Is VaIueless.
EAT THE FEEDING HAND

"Show me a striped wild animal and l
 will show you one you want to keep your eyes on," said the circus man last night.
 .I have had to do with wild animals now for good many years-I won't tell you how many, because l am getting old enough to feel the weight of these time posts-and I have never yet come up with a striped beast that did not show mean traits.
 Sometimes I wonder if this is not the
 way nature has of marking up the bad
 fellows so that they may be known, just as we put striped suits on the bad of the human kind. Take hyenas, for in- stance. They come under the head of a dog species. How seldom you ever hear of dog snappng the hand that feeds it! These ugly things are liable to do it at any time.
 They are the most uncomfortable things in the whole menagere, and if l had unruly nerves they would have me jumping like bay in a ripping storm. You can't train them, because they can
 never be depended upon. Their heads are not big enough for much storage or sense, but for all that they have more room there than sea lions, the most high ly intelligent unless possibly the ele- phant, of all beasts.
 ',rhe hyena Is so cussedy mean that l leave him severely alone and generally put him in a dark corner. where he can pad-pad to his hearts content. His food is showed in to him in a long handled pan The tiger is another striped bad one Even kitten tigers hiss and scratch and hump themselves, showing that the meanness of their nature is in the bone. Most kit en and puppy animals are stupid and friendly and like to have their heads rubbed.
 kitten tigers will scratch the hand that tries this, even though their eyes are still slits not yet open. A nimble young tiger would rather fight than eat,
 and wild animals certainly like to eat. A full grown tiger will fight to finish with anything that walks, but it is more cunning and does not take so many 1 chances as the exuberant youngsters. 'Zebras are puny little horses with stripes that give away their temper ament. Every now and then you hear of zebras broken to harness Well, I have seen few of these, but they didn't go far before something else was broken besides the zebra's mean nature. They are strong and good looking but so in-
 formally cussed that there is no doing
 anything with them. They serve all
 right for a menagerie as a part of the
 display of wild creatures, but that about
 lets them out.
 And now the circus. Just what that
 means to the average boy is not difficult
 to understand by any one with half
 grain of imagination. To the Birming-
 ham youth-to say nothing of the bud
 ding youth of all the rest of the United States-the circus is the seventh heaven of delight; 1t is the concentrated essence
 of all that Is big, and grand, and daz- zlng. and startling and mysterious. The white canvas walls of the big show con
 ceat the wonders of the universe. and the great dome of the hippodrome covers the enjoyment of a month of Saturday holidays condensed into two hours and a half But the small boys delight neither begins nor ends with the circus per formance. Watch him Saturday morning and see him welcome Ringing Brothers circus when 1t rolls into town. Every one of the five long trains of cars will gets its characteristic greeting, and every object of interest, from the giraffe cage to the umbrella-e elephant, will come in for an enthusiastic welcome. Then.