The Washington herald., 1921-04-10


S made q tour Of In
~ vestigation about its
steel-barrsd home. Beauty was mother and
there can Eieam thu same wonderful. placid
light in the eyes Of a leopard, possessed OF
young, as sisams In the eyes Of a human parent
- she bends over bassinst Nor was Beauty
,n the usual animal predicament of having
her attention divided betVeen three or per.
haps four cubs: just one had come to her.
her very nrst baby OF her four years Of life.
and upon It was all Of Bssuty's being CEN
tered
Spring was .pproaehing; the windows Of
he nenagerie house were open. to admit
the changing Of blacksmith shop. the sounds
Of Gathering hammers. the snorting and
trunpeting Of the bulls" or elephants sun.
ming themselves in the winter quarters yard.
A month more and the circus would take to
the road. the bands would blare. and the in
activity Of winter give place to the feverish
effort Of the summer season, as the circus
fought on from town to town in the never
eeasing battle against time, bad railroad con-
nsctions. long hauls to the circus lot and
the vagaries Of the elements-the inevitable
handicaps Of the land Of the white tops"
And to Beauty, within her cage, the soft
air and nuftitudtnous sounds from without
carried a message which she did not want
10 receive. Spring to her meant Disagree
able hours In the big steel arena, and the
sting Of the trainers whip. Beauty was
worker end that means . great deal
more snSoymsnt to the audience than to the
beast Already a steel training arena had
ben erected within che great open space IN
front Of the hippopotamns den. and q man
and = young woman were within It, seeking
y tempt the big. lub6ee3y beast, by means Of
eajoling and vegetable deficacies, into action
that would denote . senablanes Of intelli-
ssses On the part Of In slothfui. pigtfks
sr.tn- Beauty paid tttss attention to It.
Training meant nothing to hsr without the
stts Of . prod rod and the cutttng slash Of
. boIl~hip. She could understand nausht
slss-
Besides. there was her baby, and she came
70 an tours with q grun Erowl Of command
n the wabbling little creature padded too
near the fine netting barricads which had
besn placed against the bars Of Beauty's cage
Shsrs h adtoinef the den Of Ra3ah, the great,
saeek, ugly tempered Bengal In the adjacent
oompartment- The cub heard the command
and ambled on to its pan Of water. attempted
to drink. became too enthusiasts, tipped over
e. A.na
hi.<tng and disagreeabiy sptattered, to its
noeh~.
kDoeher Erosi. and . paw went out 10 slap
rhs cub, then to draw h esoss between the
fsrssess Of the parent. there 10 remain while
ths nastfks tnosns of Beauty smoothed the
str.gsfy. water soaked fur, and caeansed it
of The chsn and straw which had settled
thRs during the homeward scramble Both
vrs purrfns now. Beauty with a magniied
ho.rse rumble in accordance with her great
s3s, tie cub with the light, rolling tones of
sosss kitten on the rug before the CRATE
haS hour Of sblutions. Of mingled purring
md scosdtng. while the cub curled into a
nufy. dun-colored ball against her breast and
slept. and while Beauty nodded and blnked-
only to look MP at last in sudden curiosity.
form stood before her den, peering BE-
tween the bars. form whom Beauty rec
osnHedEDeiaine. her trainer. Heavy Of
shoulders. q muscles and Of build stocky
q neck. and nenacfns Of mien. Deaaine- de-
noted Just one thing to Beauty-patn. Pam
hom dc slash Of his buTlwhip, pain from
he n.ring bark Of his blank-cartridzed re-
vossa. spftttng the burning powder straight
asaanst her tightly closed eyefids. pain from
- kicks and cuffs-Delaine knew no Other
psats by which to reach. the animal intelH
gence- And In tho months that he had been
gone, Beauty had not tforsotten-neither him,
nor the cold glance Of his blue steel eyes, nor
the eoarseness Of his heavy. british veses
Aad nov. Deiaine was back.
- Just a second he hesitated outside the
rzifng. a few feet from the den. at last to
crawl over and, grasptns the bars, stare
within. e. though seeking to identity the
funy thing cur,ed within the protsceioa OF
Bsautys foreiess. Al last a grunt rhep
. command:
-B@utyi BeautyI Get up there Let's
see what you're hiding"
The big cat hisssd and rose. slowly, while
The cub. suddenly shorn Of It's comfort
yov,sd dtsmaly. Deaaine grunted again
"Got a cub. huh! OF course you'd have to
show up wsth . cub, just when need youi-
Thea he turned slowly and stood watching
ths man and the girl. just leaving the train
ing arena, IN front Of the htppopotamus tank.
That's my lucad She's got . eub-and
shs wont work." -.r