Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1912-06-05

GUS. Perhaps ! have been UNI
duly fortunate in encounters with the lion, ana
that alone makes him appear anything but the
king Of beasts" that he Is so popularity supposed
10 be.
have invariably experienced the greatest dan
ger in hunting where elephants were concerned
With lions | have never had any serious trouble.
In fact | have rather sneaking contempt Tor
them, for they are harmless except when they
are wounded and followed into the long grass, or
In the case Of a lloness with cubs. So great a
contempt have the men In East Africa for them
that they have now taken to hunting them on
horseback riding them down and shooting them
with revolvers.
shall endeavor to show why the hunters Of
Africa look so lightly upon these tawny beasts
of the jungle. / must confess, unless be mis-
understood, that lions may be as dangerous and
even more so than other animals OF the plains or
forests under certain circumstances, but 1t has
never ben my lot to experience any great dan
ger from them This Is primarily due to an In
born caution begot as the result OF seven years
hunting in the wilderness Of tropical Africa.
At times there are man-eaters at large. but for
the most part they are lions that have tasted
blood or that are too old to hunt their natural
prey the zebras.
Maneaters are a rarity rather than otherwise
IN East Africa and Uganda. In fact know OF
only where white man has been eat
by a lion during the whole seven years OF my
dreadful enough in It's pltess detail, but there
Is a touch of hufnor in the story. notwithstand
ing.
was stationed at a small outlying government
post early in 1904, when native came in one
day and reported that a white man, who had
been prospecting for land, had disappeared and
left his caravan of poTters almost starving some
days march away from my post. l fastened out
TO search for the man and to relieve the porters
from their predicament.
On my arrival at the camp found that the
porters had no idea what had become Of their
master. At first / suspected foul play, but later
came to the conclusion that the man had fallen
a victim to a prowling beast of the juagles. l
instituted a close search and eventually found
the head and shoulders of the poor fellow.
He had been eaten by lion. of that there
could be mistake, judging by the remains.
The remnants Of the body in bad state
of decomposition and l had them placed in
packingcase for burial. On my way to the grave
to perform the burial service l almost over
come with laughter, despite the sad occasion,
by observing on the packing cease coffin the stem
Ciled words Keep in a cool place" STOW away
from the boilers" The packingcase had been
used to ship cans of butter to East Africa, hence
the painted signs
The natives occasionally fall victims to the
depredations of lions but the white man rarely
does for some unknown reason. Even then the
deaths are more often due to gangrene setting
actual direct killing.
remember well my first meeting with lion
I was coming home from dinner party late at
night in Narobi the capital of East Africa and
had decided to inspect one of my military guards
on the government railway buildings. When
had approached enough to the sentry to
hear what was going on I was surprised to hear
him banging the corrugated iron wall Of the
building with the butt end of his MartinHenri
rifle He was shouting "Shoo SHOOT" at the top
of his voice.
ran toward him to discover what the
matter
rwhy are you making this noise, you fool?"
cried.
81 lion, sir, very near, eating a ZEBRA" he re-
piled
ran forward and there sure enough, a
big backmaned lion, in the bright moonlight,
eating a zebra within fifty yards Of the sentry,
He had evidently chased the zebra into the
township, killed it and was happily taking
hts supper. He paid not the slightest attention
60 the sentry's noise, but kept on tearing great
masses of flesh from the zebras carcass. purring
loudly all the time like huge cat.
My sympathy was with the sentry, for he dare
not leave his post and he dare not fire at the
loon for he was uncertain as to the accuracy OF
his old weapon, which had been condemned for
many years by the government and was now
totally unfit for use,
Telling the sentry to take advantage of the
safety offered him at the top of nearby lamp
post FASTENED to my house to get my sporting
rifle In order to do this had to pass within
one hundred yards of the lion who paid no atten
ton to me at all / hurried back to the spot
with my trusty rife and fired at the lion, badly
wounding 1t. He dashed off into the plains be
hind the town. emitting angry roars as he went
decided to follow him for time at least bu
after firing chase he outdstanced me and
was forced to return to bed.
Next morning l rode out into the plains anC
searched for him. l soon picked up his spoo
and in two hours had killed my first lion within
a few miles of Nairob township. He was yer!
fine specimen and we'll worthy Of my initial ef
fort in lion-huntng. l was justly proud of m,
achievement but had to submit to a consider
able amount of goodnatured chaf from m,
brother officials for being so keen to hunt m
FIRST lion by moonlight in the streets Of the town
On another occasion a young lion cub wa
found by a party Of US under the raised floor o
the corrugatediron postoffice building in tn
main street of Narobi It had apparently com
into town with its mother to view it by nigh
and had probably been frightened by somethin