Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-04-17
The AWFUL BIG CATS
They Are the Most Dangerous Of
All Wild Animals.


All Wild Animals.
TIGERS MERClLEss DEMONS.
While Easy to Handle and Quick to
s Learn, When Aroused They Are
Fiends Observation-Disclosures, Jasuars
and Leopards Are Treacherous.
8 ''Of all wild animals writes A. w.
Rolker in Appleton's Magazine, Sim
GLIDING the rhinoceros with his fright
full charge and his dreadful horn, in
GLIDING the rogue elephant with his
unbounded strength, his marvellous
cunning and his villainous trunk, and
including that gray shaggy rogue, the
American grizzly, with his rib crush
ing hug, his ponderous paw and his
hot, reeking nav, no beast is as dam
gerous to man as any one of the big
cats.
.'For, besides the mouth provided
with teeth that can crunch through the
leg bone of man as if it were a
pipestem, each foot is provided with
five poniard-like claws, pointed like
needles and from three to four and a
half inches long. AS the beast strikes
with these he draws the claws in,
keeping hold Of, muscles and tendons
and ligaments and tearing them out of
the flesh until they snap like rubber
bands, so that unless the victim sue
cumbs it will be months and months
and sometimes years and years be-
fore he can regain use of an injured
member.
yiciously. Curious to say, although
the claws are needle pointed and
the edges are dull as the tip Of a little
finger, cut with one of these hooks
is like the cut of a dagger. On one oc-
casion in Bostock's trained wild ami
NAL show Bengal tigress made Il
sweep at European black bear, cut
through the six inch thick fur Of the
bear and cut three parallel strips two
feet long and six inches deep and
clean as razor slashes to the very
backbone of the beast.
"As a matter of fact, the dexterity
of one Of these big cats claws is as
founding. Here is a curious accident
which happened to Bostock when he
undertook personally to break in a
rogue tiger that had gone bad Pro
vided with sole leather guards worn
next the skin and covering the feshy
part of the leg from the groin to the
knee, he entered the arena with the
bad one and was attacked and wound.
ed. His trousers were slashed In one
spot just big enough to admit a single
claw, an undergarment showed two
similar and the sole leather guard
three similar cuts, while the flesh was
torn an inch deep In four places three
inches long
Still another instance showing the
marvellous quickness of claw happened
I'm the same show when the trainer In
charge of q leopard group was saved
In the nick of time from rogue which
had tried to pull him down by climb
ing up on him. The arm Of this man
showed between wrist and elbow alone
twenty-six wounds varying from a
quarter of an inch deep and an inch
long to one inch deep and four inches
long
s'Of all the big cats, including that
magnificent jungle named monarch OF
might, the lion, and including those
beautifully spotted orange and black
villains, the jaguar and the leopard
and their cousin, that noiseless, light.
ming swift traitor; the panther, train.
ers prefer to handle the tiger.
This is contrary to the popular be
lief which credits the tiger as the most
bloodthirsty of all wild beastss The
and the easiest to handle. Whereas
the tiger always remains a nervous
high strung brute, after time lioI
becomes phlegmatic and lazy and re
quires urging, which is apt to cause
trouble
Whereas the tiger is a demon incar
nate and merciless once aroused, he Il
at least an honest fighter that gives
ample warning when about to attack
: and only as rare exception attacks {
man from behind, unlike the Jaguar
the leopard and the panther, which arr
treacherous and almost invariably at
f tack when a back is turned.
again, of all this dangerous famil,
the nature of the tiger comes neares
that of any ordinary house cat, and, al
ways comparatively, the tiger 1t is tina
is most appreciative once the maste
has succeeded in establishing his truce
Then, like the domestic cat, he likes t,
brush up against the person of hi
trainer, loves to have his back rubbed
and groomed and the top OF his heat
4 scratched to soothe the everlasting ftcl
between the ears, while he emits pur
of satisfaction, forgetting that til,
least unforeseen accident may arous,
murderous instincts that would In
tWinkling convert the friendly meetin,
into SHAMELESS
Proved IT.
Rich Uncle-Yo might as we'll stol
incoming about Miss Beauty. Sh,
he.