A UNIQUE TRADE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 28 July 1928, Page 11

A UNIQUE TRADE

pll ARLES T. GAY, the told lion herder of Dl Monte, California, visited Now York for a few hours 'before smiling with. Mns Gay for - Liverpool on flic White Stair timer Bat tie. Mr Gay, who so far as he knows has the only iron farm in the world, wants to .pick imp a. few blue ribbon lions in England fund America to freshen up his stock of 130 yearlings. Mrs Gay will meelt Kenneth, her son 'by a previous marriage, whom she has not seen since he wais eighteen months told, and Itadco the young follow back to Americai, where he will be apprenticed as a lion tamer.

Mir Gay began life als a: watchmaker in England. But hair-springs and ratchets' palled on the romaihtie young man, who longed for a. moire exciting •career. 'So he joined a circus and }>eca'mie a lion tamer, later talcing his Ph.D. 'under Professor Prank C. Postrock liimself. /

Like )moist i|>enS‘On'S avlio rise to the top of their professions, Mr Gay eventually drifted into motion pictures, where, if anybody .wamitied a follow to isltdiek his head inside a Ikm’s inJouth. he was rt.be- first to answer tte call.

However, lie soon found that there wore far too few Irons to be had for

this special work. So he purchased an eight-aero tract outside Los Angeles and '.turned six' Loins loose on it to scamper and frisk I

WORLD'S ONLY LION TAMER

about as much, als they pleased. .That \ [ wais in 1021, taind since then. 200 ibalby ! idioms 'have been born to the original I setiriers. Of that number 130 withstood i the rigours of .teething, eroup and mieateilies, and .arc mow being drained to walk, graciously wag their tails amd •register tlve various emotions moeessiairy for a successful career in the eiu'ctma amd c irons worklls. "I have no dlluisiomis about the intelligonec of lion®,” said Mr Gay. "There mover was a talking lion or one that would ‘remember thirty year® later the y •time lie. was given the exploding cigar. Their memories dim so quickly that you would think it he ir brain's .were sewn on with a needle aind thread. "The baby lions I halve left behind at E‘l Monte will haw forgotten me when I return. They are a good deal like limn nail beings- and mostly ithamk , efjyouit ’eating. I slaughter amd serve 1800 pounds of beef a; day for fiber, grVjwm-ups, <amd feed tine kiddies rich, creuhn amd raw eggs. • "Tho prize lion of my ranch is Nuiua. who co-starred in ‘The Circus ’ with Clinrli'C Chaplin. Nama is as good •as he is beaut if ui. amd in a decent evasion earns as much as £2OOO. " The lion market has not reached a bullish state yet, but I am not going to stop breeding them until it does. It would be perfectly easy for me to dispose of 200 lions a year in America if t had .them.”