Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-04-20

only eXhlDltS WHO
animals himself, but also trains them
to order for other people.
Three weeks after giving this or
der Madame Pianka exhibited her
fierce Numidian lion" The audience
shivered as the savage beast dashed
against the bars of his cage in an at
tempt to get at man standing just
out of reach-the husband" whose
wife" Madame Pianka, was covering
In a corner of the lions cage.
The lights went out. and the audi
ence sat breathless until sudden IL
Elimination showed the lion standing
over Madame Pianka's PROSTATE and
apparently lifeless body. but holding
her baby safe in its mouth. When in
the next scene Madame Pianka
dressed as the Goddess Of Liberty. sat
with her arm round the erstwhile saw
age beast-now the dignified British
ion-the house went wild with ap-
plause
During the time between the receipt
of Madame Pianka's order and her
first exhibition with the fully trained
lion, Mr.. Bostock's trainers had
busy three weeks First of all the
lion for the act had to be chosen
Every animal has its peculiar charac-
teristics, and before any attempt at
training is made these must be known
With rare exceptions all felines are
untrustworthy and more or less
only as long as he stands erect. The
minute he is down they will attack
him. For such a delicate act as Ma
dame Pianka's, therefore, it was neces-
sary to select the steadiest, most do
cile, and trustworthy lion that could
be found.
Mr. Bostock had forty lions. Among
these was magnificent animal which
had outlived most of his fierceness,
and which, by much posing, had be-
come as steady as the stars. This
lion was chosen The trainers task
was to make this lion simulate rage
without being angry-in the parlance
of the profession, to make Kim
'bounce"; to teach him to stand harm
lessly over a PROSTATE human; and to
hold in his mouth whatever was
placed in it. Upon the man who was
to appear as Madame Pianka's "hus
band" fell the first task. He accom-
plished it thus. From outside the
cage he teased the lion until the beast
sprang for him. The minute the lion
jumped, the trainer threw him piece
of meat.
1t took the lion only few days to
understand that the appearance Of the
trainer was cue for him to bounce"
and that the fiercer he ragged, the
more certain he was of his piece of
meat. To get the lion to stand over
a PROSTATE person. the animal was
first put upon high pedestals. while
the trainer walked around and under
him. Gradually the height of the
ledestals was lowered until the lion
was standing ON the floor itself, with
the trainer under him. The third
trick was also easy of accomplish
ment. A lion, like a dog, has a nat
ural tendency to carry things in its
mouth. One of Mr.. Bostock's lions
always worked with long -stemmed
rose In it's mouth Madame Pianka 6
lion was given a roll of paper to carry
and each day the size of this roll was
increased. In time the lion would pa
tiently hold a large bundle The baby
used for the exhibition, needless tc
say. was not real
From a fierce lion to tame goose
! Is far cry, but 1t is no farther thar
the range of skill shown by Mr.. Bos
tock's trainers. One of these train
ers used to be Clyde Powers, now &
stage manager at the New York Hip
podrome. Perhaps you may recall the
man who used to make you laugh a.
he walked about the I1ippodrom,
stage accompanied by a goose and
pig. That man was Mr.. Powers, ant
the goose was famous old bird.
Once woman wanted a COOS
trained like this goose. "I'll charg
you dollar an hour for training it,,
said Mr. Bostock, with a maximum
charge Of $50" The woman agree
to the price, and Mr. Powers traine
the goose. This is how he did it. Ro
"a hours he let the goose go withou
food. The next "a hours he spen
with the bird, trying to gain it
friendship. The remaining 80 hour
were devoted TO training. TO teac
the goose to follow him. he droppe
grains of corn as he walked, grad,
ally lessening the amount dropped
and in the end giving the bird it
corn all in lump after the walk wa
over To teach the goose to run frol
point to point. he placed little heap
of corn at these points. Similarl
in teaching the goose to pull a fir
engine to conflagration and to rus
away with the engine as soon as til
3laze was out, piles of corn wei
placed at intervals, and blaze we
started at corn heap. The blai
was timed to last as long as tt
corn lasted. After man, repetition
the goose learned to do t,ese tricl