LION-KINGS AND THEIR DANGERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10629, 18 December 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

LION-KINGS AND THEIR DANGERS.

t EXCITING SCENE IN A MENAGERIE, .' A scene, attended by much painful excite- '-.' ment, occurred recently during a perform- . ance in Biddall's Menagerie, at Winfrith, near Dorchester. The victim was Viola, a lion-tamer. Ibis stated that a few weeks previous he had a narrow escape, beating the animals off with difficulty, and since then he had exercised great care, At the close of the performance on the nighb in question one of tho animals in tho cage, which contained three lions, sprang upon him and seized him by the thigh. Viola managed to make his exit by the door just as the other beast dashed at him. Great excitement was occasioned by the incident, and on removal to the County Hospital at Dorchester, ib was found thab the enraged lioness had inflicted a very bad wound on the thigh of the tamer, who was detained for treatment in tho institution. If we were to reckon the number of misfortunes happening to lion-tamers and lion-kings in various parts of the world, the total would be a considerable one. Only a short time since a menagerie travelling in Devonshire had its lion-king mauled, and the fatality which happened at the Agricultural Hall, in Islington, when Alexander Beaumont paid the extreme penalty, is not yet two years old.' Accidents of all kinds have occurred to public performers in various lines of talent. The death of a female Blondin, at Birmingham in 1863, caused a protest to bo made by no less a personage than Her Majesty the Queen against the continuance of practices so dangerous to life and limb. Yet since then we have had

balloon ascents with people hanging on to the suspended car, and a whole crop of parachute "descensionists," of whom Baldwin was the first. Flying men and parachutists alike laid down their lives, and more than one gymnast has mot death while engaged in "entertaining" the public. The shooting at a " human target" trick had tho usual result in the long run, although it is practised even now. Perhaps tho fact that the late "hero of Niagara" escaped serious disaster through his long and adventurous life will encourage other funambulists to persevere. The story —probably apocryphal—of the man who followed Van Amburgh from town to town in the hope of seeing him torn to pieces is familiar enough. But Van Amburgh died peacefully in Philadelphia in 1805, and several other ardent "kings" lived in honourable retirement after a series of exciting passages with " monarchs of the forests." The Carthaginian general, Hanno, is said to have been the first lion-timer, and Marc Antony, amidst the troublous times in which he lived, sought distraction by driving a pair of lions— with a fair lady by his side! Van Amburgh—the greatest of all modern professors—was born at New York in 1812, and combined tho functions of actor and wild beast intimidator. He came over to England and made his appearance at the defunct Ashley's in 1838, and after staying in this country nine years, went to France, and finally returned to his native land. In the now demolished theatre on the Surrey side he produced " The Brute Tamer of Pompe ii ; or, the Living Lions of the Jungle," and in 1839, at Drury Lano, he made all lovers of the drama weep over tho "desecration" ho brought to that historic temple. The poor beasts, to heighten the attraction of" feeding time," were kept fasting for thirty-six hours, and then Van Amburgh appeared in the cage, accompanied by a little boy and a lamb. A lion and a panther immediately selected the latter as suitablefor lunch, and it was only with great difficulty that they were beaten off. As showing the Catholic tastes of Drury Lane audiences at this time, it may be mentioned that the lion-tamer's performances were preceded by a rendering of the opera, " William Tell." But Gessler'a tyranny was mild compared with the sorrow of genuine play-goers at seeing the" national" theatre reduced to suoh a level. At the end of the last century a woman is reported to have lost her life in a menagerie at (Jassel through imprudently literally putting her bead in the animal's mouth while her golden tresses were hanging down her back. The hair tickled the lion and caused him to close his —with consequences nob needful to enlarge upon. In Dresden, a lion-keeper having returned from church service on Sunday morning, went into the cage with his black coat on instead of the green and gold jacket he was accustomed to wear. The animal sprang at him, and was eventually fired upon, but he broke the keeper's back ere ho expired. Manchester Jack was a formidable rival of Van Amburgh, who was once asked by the Duke of Wellington whether he was ever afraid. To that he replied that when he became afraid of tho lions or the lions ceased to be afraid of him, he should retire from the wild beast line.

Carter, the lion-tamer, appeared ab Astley's in a drama specially written for him, in which he drove a lion and conducted a fight with a biger, The Sangers, many years ago, had a fine lion-tamer, Crockett, and one of the animals was so tame thab when the circus went "on parade" in the streets of a town the brute would lie at the

feet of the lady representing Britannia on i the triumphal car. One day at Astley's the I lions got loose from the cage and wandered i about the theatre, killing a groom, bub the i daring Crockett had them safely housed < again in no time. Nor has courage in deal- ] ing with wild beasts been confined to the ' stronger sex. Lion queens have been not < uncommon, even in recent years. Miss Hilton, daughter of a circus proprietor, appeared in that capacity at Stepney Fair, calling herself Lady Pauline de Veto, the " Lady of Lions;" and Miss Chapman— afterwards Mrs. George Sanger—entered upon the same line of business subsequently. The risks of the dangerous business were, however, demonstrated early. In 1850 Miss Helen Blight, daughter of a musician i in Wombwell's band, was conducting a performance, when she hit a tiger with her riding whip. Immediately the beast. sprang at ber and killed the unfortunate woman on the spot. Undeterred by this example, a Madame Labarieres appeared at Drury Lane-poor Drilry Lanel-in 1855 with lions and other performing animals. Observers of the modern tenting circus and menagerie will have noticed how often i negroes play the part of the " lion king." They coolly ride with the beasts through the streets, and exhibit the utmost nerve during the whip-smackings and pistol firings that go on in the cage. Marco, a black sailor, had many "hair-breadth j . "scapes" during his connection with Manders' menagerie. His master had bought from Jamracli, the famous u dealer, a tiger which one day sauntered into Radcliff Highway and killed a little boy. On being put in a cage it commenced to ;:. fight the other resident there, 'and when Macoinowenb in with his heavy whip the pair concentrated their attention upon him. ::;;•' In 1860 a lioness bit him at Norwich, and v. some time later a lion knocked him down, injuring a forefinger so badly that it had to g be amputated., Nevertheless he bore bis H , charmed, lifo until the day of a natural H: death. Many of the best lion-tamers have been actual total abstainers, and a failure to observe the' golden' rule of sobriety ;,-.';, appears to have' been in some degroe | . responsible for the death of McCarthy, an I Irishman, who travelled first with Bell and m Myers', circus, and lost an" arm while'perm ■!,' forming with ''lions there in- 1862. Oh ;'.-• becoming successor to Macomo his illv': fortune increased. At Edinburgh, in 1871, '■:-,.'. he had another mishap, and ho met bis rjv. ; . death at Bolton in 1872. j Being , first pi knocked down by a lion, the other beasts sprang upon him;; After ) a terrible, end i-: exciting scene they' were' driven off,, (*-'■ unhappily too late. That lion-taming i* a jV fine art— a' dangerous fine atb'ab the :■ . best— be freely'admitted.' I 'Excep-1 tional : nerve and' steadiness ;Of temper are 'If' indispensable. •••' Vet, even '* With these i\ , assured, the uncertainty of a savage beast; g !*&.'• can never be tboroaghly.guaranteed, as the Wmft history of this claBS of performance testifies.' |V:;. . A practical professor, who knew, all '.'the |;';. ; .. ropes" of the game, Btated that the lionHll tamer" likes to get his beasts as young as, J, ' he can, because then they are more easily brought into order, although no doubt there, are many' instances where ; a full-, ._ grown forest lion has been trained to high ;^-"' ; perfection. The lion-tamer begins by V,-, ■. taking the' feeding of them into his own >," ; hands, and so gets them to know him, '' He' commences feeding them from'; the : outside '.', - v '■ •' of .the den, then ventures inside to one at a -, ' time, always carofully keeping'his face to the animal, and. avoiding any Violence; -3 • -, which, is , a mistake whenever ib * can be . avoided, as ib rouses the dormant devil in ;'';" ,'•', the beasts. i Getting to handle the lion, tho ;iv ? v'-.\''->'v3' : '' ";V \- '^■'■■■■>''?v;A:-;J^

tamer begins by stroking'- him down the back, gradually working up to the head, which he begins to scratch, and the lion, which, like a cat, likes friction, begins to rub his head against the hand. When this familiarity is well established, a board is handed into the trainer, which he places across the den, and teaches the lion to jump over it, using a whip with a thong, but nob tor the purpose of punishment. Gradually thisboardisheightoned.thelionjumpingover it at every stage ; and then como the hoops, etc., held on the top of the board to quicken the beast's understanding. To teach the animal to jump over the trainer, the latter stoops alongside the board, so that when the lion clears one he clours the othor, and half-a-dozen lessons are ordinarily about sufficient to teach this. To get a lion to lie down and allow the trainer to stand on him is more difficult. It is done by flicking the beast over the head with a small, tickling whip, and at the same time pressing him down with the hand. By raising his head and taking hold of the nostril with the right hand and the under lip and lower jaw with the left the lion by this pressure on the nostril and lip loses greatly the power of his jaws, so that a man can pull them open and put his head inside the beast's mouth, the feat with which Van Amburgh's name was so much associated. The only danger is lest the animal should raise one of its fore paws, and stick his talons in; and if he does the tamer must stand fast for his life till he hag shifted the paw." Into the training question ib is not necessary to enter in detail. What one marvels at is the intrepidity of men and women ready to engage in a performance which must inevitably be attended with such a vast element of danger. Cooper, Delinonico, a dauntless performer, and Boone have been prominent among the latter-day lion-kings. The last-named, Colonel Daniel Boone, took a lady, Miss Milly Carlotta, into tho den where the five lions were. " Lion-kings" are not unknown at the music halls either, and a lady described us the " Countess X," had a don of beasts at the Aquarium a short time Bince. It is much to'bo regretted that the public taste does not wander in a different direction. A menagerie minus tho attraction of a cage of lions possesses many solirl delights for tho countryside, and tho time has surely arrived whon the beasts intent be allowed to snnrl and bite at each other. It is not uncommon for some of the travelling shows to induce a " a well-known local townsman" to enter the den with the " king" on some evening during tho visit. The possibility of seeing their fellow-citizen eaten up alive appeals with magnetic force to tho " locals." And it is only just to them to say that in the majority of cases the "well-known local townsman" is a gentleman who could well be spared.