DARING DEEDS OF MODERN DANIELS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 56

DARING DEEDS OF MODERN DANIELS.

REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES IN

LIONS' DENS.

When about to enter Into the bonds of matrimony, the majority of men -are satisfied with the ordinary terrors of the marriage ordeal. A more daring bridegroom, however, was Captain Taylor, the wellknown lion-tamer, who is at present performing ab the Greater Britain Exhibition. Mr and Mrs Taylor had the marriage knot tied in a cage, which also had for its occupants a couple of full-grown lions. This unque ' bridal party, not content with bearding the lion in his den, had actually the nerve to pose for their photographs at the same time, whilst the growlr in? animals were kept in check by tbs piercing eye of the bridegroom.

A beautiful Calif ornian young lady, Mile. Adgie, gave a wonderful performance in the Olympic Music-hall, New York, some little time ago. A sensational item in her ''turn was a serpentine dance in a cage of lions, while the full power of coloured calcium lights was -thrown upon her. Very few trainers have found it possible to keep wild animals in check' under . the glare, of many-coloured lights, but -Mile. Adgie has never yet met with an accident.

The most startling feat performed by - Mile. Adgie was the changing from an-pr-dinary walking costume into tights,- sifter the manner of Charmion, the trapeze'urtiste,* with the difference that Mile./ Adgie - accomplished the change in the vliohs'. ; cage. f The feat caused a great sensation, in- 'New : , York at ths time, but it had to be stopped ' later on. Mr Stanley C. Hart, a woil-known cycling instructor on the Riviera, has ridden a bicycle in the lions' cage of a travelling circus. One of the lions resented the intrusion so bitterly that it knocked aH the spokes out of one of the wheels of the machine with a blow of its paw. Only the intervention of the keeper saved the daring rider from death.

Perhaps the most daring feat ever accomplished in a lions' den, however, was that performed by a farmer belonging to a,. small village called . N ewtonards, in the North of Ireland. While in company with a number of other farmers, who had met together at a local inn, the, conversation turned on the visit of a travelling circus in general, and the feats of the liontamer in particular. Roberts, the farmer in question, a tall, sturdy young fellow of about 27, offered to bet anyone in the company £5 that he would enter the lions' den himself, and treat the spectators to a. comic song and dance. The wager was accepted by another farmer.

Permission was obtained, aiter some trouble, from the proprietor for Roberts to make the attempt. Needles* to say, elaborate preparations were made in case - the lions rhould not prove tractable, and' a small army of attendants, with' red-hot ■iron bars, stood at the entrance to the ring. Roberts, in company with the trainer, tered the cage and commenced his song. To this the lions offered no objection, bufc' when he began his dance they showed evident signs of discontent, and the trainer had hard work to keep them in check.

The performance was carried through safely until the last moment, when, jusfe as the trainer was leaving the cage, one of the animals suddenly sprang at him. It fastened its claws in his left arm, but he made such good use of his right that ihe managed to get away with only a few nasty flesh wounds in his afrm.

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— Jo.hnnie: "What does it mean by 'seeing the humorous and the serious side of things'?" Father: "Well, my B'on, take a bit of orange peel, for example. How manysides has it? Johnnie: "Why, two of course." Father: "Exactly; and when some other man steps on that orange peel he sees the serious side of it, and you see. llig humo/ 'rg>Uß side."-