The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1911-06-20


only exhibits wild
animals himself, but also trains them
to order for other people.
Three weeks after giving this or
der, Madame Pianka exhibited her
fierce Numiiian 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." Madarle Pianka, was covering
in corner Of the lions cage.
The lights went out, and the audi
ence sat breathless until sudden H.
Elimination showed the lion standing
over Madame Pianka's PROSTATE and
apparently lifnless 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 found the erstwhile raw
age beast-no% the dignifled British
lion--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 It's 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
treacherous. They are afraid of man
only as long as he stands erect. The
minute he Is down they will attack
him. For such delicate act as Ma
dame Pianka's, therefore. 1t 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 a magnificent animal which
had outlived most Of his ferceness,
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 him
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 Piankas "hus-
band" fell the first task. He accom-
plished It thus. From outside the
cage he leased the lion until the beast
sprang for him. The minute the lion
Jumped. the trainer threw him a piece
Of meat.
It took the lion only few days to
understand that the appearance Of the
trainer was cue for him to bounce"
and that the flercer he ragged, the
more certain he was of his piece Of
meat. To get the lion to stand over
PROSTATE person. the animal was
first put upon high pedestals. while
the trainer walked around and under
him. Gradually the height of the
pedestals 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 dog, has a nat
ural tendency to carry things In Its
mouth One OF Mr.. BOstocks lions
always worked" with long-stemmed
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 large bundle. The bah,
used for the exhibition, needless t
say. was not real.
. From a fierce lion to q tame COOS,
, Is far cry, but 1t Is no farther thai
| - oh oh
tocks trainers. One OF these train
ers used to be Clyde Powers. now
. stage manager at the New York HiI
podrome. Perhaps you may recall tn
. man who used to make you laugh a
!, he walked about the Hippodrom
!. stage accompanied by a goose and
! pig. That man was Mr.. Powers, an
= the goose was famous old bird.
l. Once a woman wanted COOS
h trained like this goose. TN charg
you a dollar an hour for training 1t
said Mr.. Bostock, with a maximum
n charge Of $50" The woman agree
h to the price, and Mr.. Powers traine
~ the goose. This is how he did 1t. Fl
~ "a hours he let the goose go witho1
>. food. The next "a hours he spel
h with the bird. trying to gain
A friendship. The remaining 80 hou
to were devoted to training. To teal
Is the goose to follow him. he dropp'
" grains of corn as he walked, grad
ally lessening the amount droppe
and in the end giving the bird
a. corn all In lump after the walk W
or over. To teach the goose to run fro
to point to point, he placed little hea
IA of corn at these points. Similar
IN. in teaching the goose to pull fl
ga engine to conflagration and to ru
an. away with the engine as soon as
IA blaze was out, piles Of corn We
tn placed at intervals, and blaze "
ITO started at q corn heap. The bls
ma was timed to last as long as
-. corn lasted. After many repet1tic
the goose learned to do these trif