Evening star., 1927-05-01
and Beast Fight With Alternating Fortunes in the jungle
Trppr ntImdncs

break through the basket and, once
out. make like a streak to the prov
and wait there eagerly for land.
I.eopards. of course. can swim, but
the cat.animals never venture into the
water unless Il is their only hope OF
safety.
lew snima4 men would believe
that bush hog would risk fight
with the far more powerful leopard.
or attack a leopard, after the animal
had already killed one OF her family.
Yet j met a Red River hog, or russet
wild pig, with tasseled ears, about the
size of a medium.sized domestic hog.
in the forest back of Porto Lokko, that
completely did for leopard.
I was scouting through the bush.
after siesta time, when kojo and l
heard the cry OF the leopard. We
climbed into tree and waited. Soon
a fair sized bush-hog painted into the
open below us. In the next second
the leopard had jumped upon his back
and snapped his neck.
Just as the leopard was settling IT.
self down to a fine supper of pig, out
from behind the trees charged boar.
"Ourh -ourrh -ourrhhv' grunted the boar
in a prolonged bass. He dug his sharp
little hoofs into the leopard, which,
taken by surprise, was great disad-
vantage.
Though the boar was more than
| holding his own with the leopard. his
whole clan soon closed in from all sides
with squeals of vengeance. Clawing
and splitting, that leopard died, trag-
| ically outnumbered.
One Of my closest calls from a cat
animal came when tiger got loose in
a freight car in Philadelphia. l was
~. fIaY- yxrffh a
| lion. to the Philadelphia Geological
Gardens. After 1 had allowed rea-
| sonable time for the animals to ar
| rive from New York. went to inquire
! of the station master, Towne, who
| has since died.
While we were talking. freight
| hand ran up and said excitedly: "Oh,
| Mr. Towne, there's tiger loose in
| car Give me a gun. I'll shoot him.
Take care what you do l warned
/ him. hot in moment. ThatS my
| tiger and I'll hold the road response
| ble."
| I climbed up to peep in at window
1 high on the side of the car. My tiger
was loose and was nosing at the cage
| of the sea lion He was working HIM
| self into a rage, and / knew that, II
| he broke into the cage, he would finish
| the poor beast. Just then it was
1 IuuZEiG NtTSuH IluALACs a AAC oNph @AChA
! has a powerful. heavy, long mouth
| quite equal to that of the tiger.
/ telephoned for my man. Edgar Smith,
and then l tried to figure out how
| would get the tiger back into his
cage. He had broken through q
wooden side and left the barred front
intact.
l. When Edgar arrived, 1 told him to
| bring me as many 3-foOt-wide runs as
4 -, Dc -n
| to remove q horse from freight car.
Fastening these together, we built
| fences and then divided the car into
| two compartments. next climbed TO
| the little Slated window and located
the tiger. He was standing on three
or four boards, switching his tail. the
| first signal of danger with any OF the
cat animals. His cage and the cage
of the sea lion were on opposite sides
of the same end of the freight car.
| This lay Of the land pleased me very
much. If the tiger would only keep it
| till I worked out my scheme! We
| thrust in another barrier, managing TO
| get the tiger shut off in one compart-
ment; in the other were the tigers
broken cage and the sea lion in his
cage. Edgar and | now mended the
broken cage and lifted it's barred front.
Then began my maneuveTs to beat
4
my arm reaching over one barrier. a
long. stout eudgeI of steel and leather.
which Edgar had brought me, in my
hand. With this I prodded the tiger
| gently in the direction of his cage.
Finally we had him incIosed in q
small square, which held him., his
empty cage and the sea lion. Still I
urged him along until there was moth
| ing left for him but to back into the
cage. He gave one rebelliouS whine
as he went in and I reached up to
slip down the farred front. He was
safely housed once more.
1 shall never forget the singing In
my heart when / stepped to the door
to send for the truck to move my tiger
away. Twilight had fallen. Then, and
| only then. did l realize that the sea
| lion was barlIing-that he must have
been barking for the entire hour and a
half.
Copyright. 1922