New-York tribune., 1910-09-02
ROOSEVELT TELLS OF LIONS
Entertains High School Students
with Tales from Africa.

Kansas City. Mo. Sept. 1.-Iheodore
Roosevelt to-day addressed the students
of the Westport High School. telling stories
of his trip to Africa. When the former
President arrived the students stood on
their feet and gave him the Chautauqua
salute. while at the same time they shouted
at the top of their voices. AS soon as they
would let him speak. Mr.. Roosevelt said
he had confession to make; that he was
a little afraid of the audience. because half
of it was composed of girls. whom he never
knew how to handle.
II have four boys of my own" said' he.
"and only two girls. The girls were both
in charge of their mother until they grew
up, and then they took charge OF me. They
have treated me kindly but firmly
Colonel Roosevelt then said he was going
to tell them some stories of Africa
THE natives are perfectly wild savages.
he said land their enemies accuse them
Of occasionally and playfully lapsing into
cannibalism. That is a delicate subject.
and I never inquired into it.
"One day while I was riding up the rail-
road TO Nairobi, telegraph communication
was interrupted he went on. That was
because a herd of giraffes had cantered
across the tracks and pulled down the
wires with their necks."
Then Mr. Roosevelt told some more
stories of his experiences in Africa. He
talked about the lions
When they were building the railroad"
he continued. CONSTRUCTION was stopped
for two weeks. because two lions had
tabIished themselves on the tracks and ate
up all the men who came TO work 1 think
they ate about one hundred Finally they
were killed"
He said the survivor of another en-
counter with the lions told him story
which he would repeat.
AT one railroad station" he began. THE
lions ate up the agent. and when the next
train came along it ate up a brakeman.
The division superintendent, an English
man, took a German and an Italian with
him and went out there TO kill the lion.
They sat up In the night waiting for
the lion. and finally the italian went TO
sleep at one end of the car and the Ger
man got into one of the berths. The En-
| glishman sat at the window, with his rife,
on guard. He evidently went to sleep
| there
The lion, with its queer, sinister intelli-
gence, saw that the man was asleep. 1t
came up the platform, pulled the sliding
door open with its paw and went in The
German was awakened by the weight of the
lions hind legs on him. The forelegs OF
the lion were on the Englishnan and the
lion had the mans head in his mouth.
The German shouted and awakened the
Italian, who leaped UP and jumped on the
lions back. He jumped off again and ran
to the other end of the car. The lion had
his man and only wanted to get away with
him. 1t smashed its way through a win
dow. dragging the Englishman with him.
and all through the night the German and
the Italian could hear the dreadful purring
of the lion as IL ate the Englshman."
Before Mr.. Roosevelt departed he gave
the children some advice. To the girls he
said:
II don't like to have a girl dance all
night, so that she will be tired the next
day when her mother wants something
from the second story
His advice to the boys was given in terms
of football. 1t was:
Don't shirk. don't foul and hit the line