El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-01
The Herald's Daily
Short Story

saw you working at fair In Brook
Ign and admired your courage"
still" the boss went on, zone day
trembled like a baby in the woods. IT
was O'Clock in the morning. long after
the end Of the performance, and / was
as usual rehearsing new sensational
turn with my lions in the barred cor
rtdOr running back of the cages. With
my eyes L dominated them and COM
PEELED them to obey my VIII, when a
stroke OF lightning suddenly caused a
short circuit and all the lamps Went
out Then, boys l learned to know
what fear means. fear that paralyzes
your muscles and chains your feet to
the ground.
In the darkness two luminous points,
the image Of the light left on my re-
tina danced before me. while the lions
were staring at me with their glartng,
yellowish-g green phosphorescent eyes.
1 placed my back against the wall and
suddenly an idea flashed through my
brain, a ridiculous idea perhaps, but
one which impressed itself upon my
mind with Irresistible force. Il seemed
to me that If I could simply keep my
eyes open and catch the refleXes of thu
eyes of the beasts ( should be able to
manage them. So I stood there in absO-
lutte darkness with wide open eyes and
felt how the lions came crawling up
to me to knock me down with blow
of their paws, strong enough to break
the back Of a horse preceding a rush
forward Of five hundred pounds Of mus
their tails thrashing the sand and time
and again their hoarse rOars.
Standing mOuOnless against the
wall as II crucified, ] felt my heart
beating and the color leaving my face,
but with my whole will power concen-
trated in my wide open eyes. It seemed
to last an eternity.
Il began to grow tired and struggled
to keep my eyes steady. fully convinced
that If I merely Winked the beasts
would be at me at once and crush my
I life out. I felt that I should not be able
to keep IL up much longer and the
thought came to me that even death
would be preferable to the torture ]
was suffering.
Then. just as was on the point OF
giving up, / saw q faint glow in front
OF me, the arc lamps began to splutter
and, as the light came back. I barely
succeeded IN getting away from one OF
I lions that sprang at me. Ny whip cut
through the air like q flash and hit the
beast on the nose, its most sensitive
point. 1t roared with pain but skunk
back, still growing, to q corner where
the others were huddled together
was saved and my eyes once more
forced the beasts to perform their
tricks
There was long silence and as Craig
poured out glass Of water, Fred Pow
ers said in a low voice:
Il bet you did not lose much time
getting out Of the cage, bOssg
But the boss shrugged his shoulders
II never rested until my work was
finished II you give in to a lion once
1T will never forget II and will always
refuse to obey you afterward. During
that stormy night I needed all my will
power to make them obey"
Burlington, who had been at Harvard
exclaimed in a tone of enthusiasm:
Thank you, boss for telling us thai
story. Nothing is grander than the tale
of a. strong man like you fighting and
winning out in darkness. which Is the
accOmplice Of all ferocious. prowlins
beasts
The men all grew silent The storm
broke out in all its fury and bIindfne
flashes Of light followed each other in
/ cesSantly.