New-York tribune., 1921-04-03

! furror
heimer, the tiger tanner. At this
point it seems essential to reach back
into the details and look over certain
features of the organization be.
queathed us by the departed Tufts
When we took it under friendly
wing, that circus contained just one
wild animal, if you don't count Henri
the cook, who was always more OF
less volcanic by nature. This wild
animal was a Bengal tiger, referred
to as Nero, and while 1 never knew
much about tigers as a class, and
have, in fact, avoided them, I could
still see that there was reason for
the dread in which Nero was held by
the circus employees.
The wild animal had only one
friend in the world, and that was
Dorlando Hergesheimer, the daunt-
less and unshaved trainer. On the
advertising he was billed as Dor
lando the Fearless, and he was all
of that, because Nero was no Joke
tiger. He had full equipment of
saw teeth and rotten disposition
and he never lost either for minute
Nero was a lean and hungry
looking beast, with concave flanks
and couple of hips that looked as if
somebody had broken them and set
them back wrong. On his upper jaw
were pair of fangs labeled sudden
death, and when he snarled you could
see clear down his red and inf1amed
throat as far as his third speed for
ward. He could bite mans leg
off with one chew, and would, if
given the slightest encouragement.
If you passed his cage in a care
less manner he had a playful habit
of reaching for you with his left paw,
and during the first week Omar went
by, looking innocently for a tin pail,
and Nero slapped him one and re-
moved $12 suit Of clothes without
touching a button. Omar bled little
and declared war on Nero, and that
war continued from then on.
Every time our little third in
gredient sauntered by the tiger
wagon he either hit Nero with a
small three-cornered rock or pound
ed on the end Of his tail with a
broom handle. Neither of these at
tentions brought the two of them
closer to warm friendship. On the
end Of Nero's tail was a knobby.
bushy growth, and this hairy apex
was extraordinarily tender. When
Omar learned this anatomical fact
he got him an iron bar and played
for the tail consistently.
AS Nero was the only real, live
wild animal in the Tufts Mammoth
Circus, naturally he was necessary
to its continued existence. Likewise
and hence, Dorlando Hergesheimer,
the fearless and joyless tanner of
jungle beasts, was essential to our
success. Harmony perceived this at
once; and did everything he could to
make Dorlando's life happy one.
But not Omar.
TN ADDITION, there was Jimmy
Kicks, left-handed tight-rope
walker and comedian, and, besides
him, Joe Lavelle, rheumatic clown,
who began clowning the year Cen
eral Grant entered high school.
Paddy Sheehan and Ella Lohman
were our trapeze performers, and
there was nothing the matter with
them.
May Cruze was the lady bareback
rider and weighed ninety-three
pounds in her war paint. The trick
cyclist was Henry Pease. Jimmy
Jinsen's Educated Seals rounded out
the list of artistes, and brings US
down to the band. which was COM
posed Of four rudGy beer drinkers,
related to the German nation by
marriage. They played snare
drum, fife, cornet of the E-fat
type, and trombone, and you could
hear that band thirty-two miles on
a cloudless night. They didn't mind
the lack Of the weekly envelope, but
they did complain in their quaint,
gargling tongue over the hideous
scarcity Of beer saloons.
Then we had a small corps Of bill