The Harrison times., 1911-05-27

der Madame Pianka exhibited he
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 JUS
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 a sudden IL
Elimination showed the lion standing
over Madame Pianka's PROSTATE anc
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
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 a
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
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, 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 a 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 him
bounce; to teach him to stand harm
lessly over q PROSTATE human; and to
hold In his mouth whatever was
placed In 1t. Upon the man who was
to appear as Madame Pianka's "hus'
band" fell the first task. He accom-
phshed 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 q 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
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 nat
ural tendency TO carry things in its
mouth One of Mr. Bostock's lions
always worked" with q long-stemmed
rose in its mouth. Madame Pianka' S
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 to
say, was not real,
From a fierce lion to tame goose
is a far cry, but It is no farther than
the range Of skill shown by MIR. Bos.
tock's trainers. One Of these train,
ers used to be Clyde Powers, now a
stage manager at the New York Hip
podrome Perhaps you may recall the
man who used to make you laugh as
he walked about the Hippodrome
stage accompanied by goose and a
pig. That man was Mr.. Powers, and
the goose was famous old bird.
Once a woman wanted q goose
trained like this goose. '1'll charge
you a dollar an hour for training It,
said Mr.. Bostock. with a maximum
charge OF $50" The woman sgroeC
TO the price, and Mr., Powers trained
the goose. This Is how he did IT,. laol
"a hours he let the goose so without
food. The next "a hours he spen
with the bird, trying to gain Ii
friendship. The remaining 32 hour
were devoted TO training. To teacl
the goose 10 follow him, he dropped
grains OF corn as be walked. gradu
ally leesening the amount dropped
and in the end giving the bird II
corn all IN hump after the walk wa
over. To teach the goose TO run from
point to point, he placed little heap
OF corn at these points. Similarl
In teaching the goose to pull fire
engine to conHagration and TO rusl
away with the engine ne soon as IN
blaze was out, piles Of corn wer
placed at intervals, and blaze wa
started at q corn heap. The blax
was timed TO last as hong as Tn
corn lasted. After many repetition
the goose learned TO DO theee trick
y