The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-10-02

rrS HE soft summer day lured me from my room,
and following its pleasant reckoning, |
strolled on regardless of distance until !
found myself in the Geological Garden.
Only the night before. in looking over some old
magazines. had come across and read The Lady
or the Tiger The quaint literary conceit had
greatly interested nett now fingered in my
mind. clothing the Bengal prisoner with fresh
fascination; and after had made IA tour of the
grounds found myself the second time in his
nelghborhood This, | concluded should be the
end of my stroll; here would spend the remain
der OF my afternoon and seating myself on one
OF the rustic chairs near the cage. fell to con
templatlng with an interest largely mixed with
speculation the poor captives it confined.
Near the center beautiful, sleek tigress sur
rounded by her cubs, lay basking in the sun. while
the male large, muscular creature. imposing in
his striped regaia. paced back and forth at the
farther end like faithful sentinel. Long and in
tently regarded them, thinking concerning
them, things that had never before entered my
mind. | wondered if they had been born and
reared in durance? If. in the content of igno
rance they spent their days oblivious of space UNI
limited by bars; or If. in some way had come
down to them legends of the woods, jungles and
rocky caves that are their natural haunts? Some
how thought there We're memories and longinss
IN the great wide-opened eyes of the restless sen
tlnel as he lifted them and gazed away toward
the horizon
look was replaced by of present interest as he
turned towards the family group.
An my little cubs. she said crouching down
among them, how my heart bleeds when think
of the dreary life you now live and the desolate
future that awaits you. How long to tear away
these bars and fling you back into the great broad
world through which | once roamed at will that
you might revel, if but day, in its glories-hat
you might view if but once its towering mount
ANS swelling streams and sandy deserts and take
one long sweet draught of freedom, You eat flesh
thrown you by the keeper, yea gloat upon its fla
vor. but what know YOU of the taste of blood
n ,,c,lf
captured? Many time have stood upon a
rocky height and watched the cattle browsing on
the plains. and singled out the best of them p,ll
sued it to its death; or crouching in the lush
grasses by the rivers bank waited the coming of
the thirsty deer and sprnging on the aeetest
thlottled him to suffocation His whole frame
seemed to dllate and culver with his fierce pent
up longing. What power was once mine. What
strength lay in this he continued, stretching out
to its full length his long snewy limb. How the
beasts of the earth feared me? had but to roar
and the strongest of them fled trembling to their
dens and junges!''
oh! why then here?" whned one of the
cubs. why do YOU not go back-whv do YOU not
go back and take with you to that broad beau
tiful word?'
All! my little cubs. l not the prisoner of
beasts l would trample their brute force in the
dust and scorn their letters and devices 1t is
man who has mastered me-man who was made
my lord. The bounds he sets | must keep
the shackles he FORCES | must wear. BY him !
was outwtted and ensnared-his prisoner live
his prisoner ! must de." This he said with a
groan that shook the bars in his cage. After a
long silence he continues There was great re
jocing throughout the length and breadth of the
land. when it was known that had been taken:
for had been for many years the terror of the
neighborhood, nay of the whole kingdom, and peo-
pie locked from far and near to gaze at me and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS