Among Wild Beasts

"I have beenscalpcd by a leopard, hugged by bears, knocked ' galley west' i by elephants, had my whiskers pulled out by a vicious monkey, been clawed j by a tiger, liad my shoulder smashed by a lion, and a score of times been kioked half way across the street by an ugly camel, and yet I am alive to teil of it.' i Such were the words of the great lion tamer and wild beast king.j Oharley White, to the writer, who applied to him for certain information regarding the j manner of training ferocious animáis for j public performances. j " Well, haven't you got some notable j instances of interference between you i and death or harm which you can chalk '! up to the credit of some of your animáis?" " Certainly I have. My pet honess ■ ' Bose' has saved my life many times by her good teeth and claws. Several times when I have feit that my time had come has the noble girl sprang to the rescue and given me auother chance." "Is she the only one to whom you; owe a debt of gratitude in that wa ?" i "No ; but I once had a lion that I called ' Jiinmy,' who made a savage j tack on me when I was performing be : fore the audience. He seized me by the shoulder, ribs and arm of my right side, and threw me to the bottom of the cage instanter, and began to gobble up my muscles as fast as he could. Altkough his claws had been clipped, and liis teeth had some difficulty in entering my thick clothing, he yet was breaking my bones in fine style. I made as good a flght as I could with my lelt hand, in j which I had a whip, and the men side hnrried with iron bars and spikes as , soon as they could, but they would all j have been too late had it not been for ' Rose. ' She had been lying on her belly apparently asleep, though the eequel showed that she had been watching everything pretty closely. Whon she thought things "had gone about far enougli she gave one sharp, vicious growl, and leaped from her shelf liko a thunderbolt. She eeized Jimmy by the neck, and shook him as a terrier would a rat tiïl he yelled for mercy. I was badly maulod, but I took my whip in my left hand and went through the rest of the performance. I made Jimmy go through all his tricks - mounting on my back, standing on his hind legs, and all the rest of it. Rose stood by and watehed him. She noted every motion, and stood ready to take hold of him again in case of necessity." " How did Jimmv welcome you '{" " O, he was glad enough to see rae - j that Bort oL animáis have little power to ; remember spites or injuries." " But don't they remember their ] ers after long absences I" " Sometimes, and that is what bothers me. I have had my animáis recognize me after an absence of several months. j They would hear my voice and f ootstep and come rubbing up against the side of the cage and put their paws out between j the bars. Strange to say, they do not know a man by his features, but by his dress and morí; particularly his voice. j If I should go into my cages with j a strange snit of clothes, and should not gpeak, they wouldn't know me, and ! ten to one the beasts would trj to do me a mischief. But let me put on the spangled dress again, or let them hear my voice, and all would be right." This conversation led to some talk about how these fierce brutes are brought under the subjection of man. Mr. White was willing to impart information, and some of the results of his niany years of experíence are given below : Animáis taken tull grown trom the woods and jungles are generally much t more easily traiued than those tliat havo j ; been born in captivity and brought up I by the human hand or by the mothers ; I in tho eage. These latter, or "pet " i mals, nearly always acquire many tricks i and manners wliich they have to unlearn I bef ore they can be properly taught. i Theu, too, their constant f amiliarity f rom ! : early cubhood with mankind tends ly to divest tliem of that fear of the i man animal which is the first essential in ! their education to proper subjection. On the other hand, tliose beasts that are broufht up so as to know no sentiment but fear, soon learn that their ül-temper will not be tolerated for a moment, and ! that a lit of sulks only brings heavy shment. The first great agent in taming wild beasts just taken from their native forests is partial starvation. They are kept i without food until thoy are both weakenod in strength and subducd in temper j and Berceneas. Food is then given them by de.grees, always by the same person ! until tlicy learn to recognize man. As ! soon as expedient, their claws are cut so closely that their power of mishief is nearly destroyéd from these weapons ; they are then muzzled, and having been sufïicii ntly aceustomed to the presence ! of tho keeper, they are then exercised in a cage one at a time. The slightest sign j ■ of vioiousness is instanüy punished by a i ! sharp blow, until the animal learns to I know tho whip and to uuderstand the word of command. The same routine is pursued in the caJ3 of lions, tigers, panthers, leopards, and all other animáis of the cat kind, ' which must ever bc controlled by fear, j üinl mn-t be constantly watched lest I their treacherous naturea break out. To tench an animal to jump Uirough a hoop, a piece of meat is suspended in ! such a manner as to be only accessiblo by a leap through the ring- af ter a few i repetítiotB the animal soon learns to neet the ideas of food and the ring and the act of leaping, and will soon make the leap and De content to wait for the reward. It will be noticed that a cage of peiforming animáis is ahvays fed dnring or iminediately alter their exhibition. The nose is the most vulnerable spot. A sharp blow on the nose with a whip wil] give a lion or tiger exquisite pain, when a hit with a hammer between the eyes he wouldn't mind at all. j Next to the nose, the paws are the most j sensitive portions of the. frame. It is often asserted that red-hot irons are used in training animáis for public performances. This is all a mistake. Hot irons are only resorted to when a keeper has been se'ized and is in imminent danger, and hot irons chance to be near. Sometimes they are used to separate two large iions or tigers which are fighting and caimot be driven apart in any other way. Long bars of iron or steel, heated to red heat in a forge, are pressed against the jaws and teeth of two fighting brutes. Tor a time each ' imagines that the unwonteel pain comes from his adversary, but a few minutes serve to couviuce both that some power more potent is at work, and they quickly return to milder duties. A lesson of hot irons seldom has to be repoated more ; than once a year. Of those animáis seen in an ordinary performing cage, the hardest to train is the black leopard. This animal is treacherous, and always liable to break out in open insubordiuation. Thus it will bc seen that both in the i training and the performing of caged unimals, and in the keeping them in subi jection at all times, the one elemtnt of fear is all that is mainly relied on. Only tima can thoy be managed with even tolerable safety, and no matter how carefully inanaged, they will, in some sudden", inexplicable fit of U-temper, attaok a keeper whose daily oompanion they have been for years. Despíte a commonly-received opinión to the contrary, basts- the larger felines at all events - do not seem to possesa the means of communicating to each other any acquü-ed knowledge. Each one bas to be taught separately. The others teil him nothing. Among oertain of the smaller animáis this iact does not hold, as may appear in the sequel. A full-grown, lion, not less than six or ten years old, if properly trained for the public, is worth #10,000. A lioness perhaps a little more, on account of the posBibility of her bringing into the world a family of cubs. A tigcr trained is worth about $ 7,000 A tigrcss traincd is worth about 'lw A lcopard trained is worth abont M A panthcr, not traincd, will bring, accorilluí? to age aud uizo 1OU@2OJ Training adds to the value about uu A black leopard, very rare, the onc now at Baruuni's being the only trained one m the business at present, is worth 1,000 The last few years have dissipated certain ideas fonnerly universally prcvalcnt abmit certain animáis nhicli were : notably the hyeua, zebra, rhinooeroe, ] gnu, or horned horse, and one or two of the minor animáis not usually ered worthy the trouble of training. The first, aiid indeed we believe the only rhinooeros tamed, was broken by Dan Rice, wiien he was a circus proprietor. He broke the unwieldy brute to run around the ring backwards and wards, being always oontrolled by a long ring-rein fastened to an ñ-on ring in lus uose. This was all the sulky beast could j be compelled to do. He would learn no trick, and was always dangerous. The ftrst hyena ever trained, or whose supposed flerce natui-e was overeóme so as to submit to being handled by man, was one which was expenmented on in 1854 by Charles White in Brooklyn. He was five or six years oíd, full-grown, and as full of vice as all of his graverobbing fraternity are reported to be. The first time the daring trainer ventured into the cage, Mr. Hyena carne at him, mouth wide open, tusks protrudhig, screaming like an angry horsa. It was evidently to be a sharp fight between the man and the brute. Mr. White, with a huge club in his hands, awaited the coming of the amiable Mr. H. As I soon as Mr. H. got near enough, Mr. I White prostrated him with the club. I This was repeated again and again, till at length he needed no more club, and from j this time was as docile as any untrained animal, and needed no more and no severer correction than does a young liou or leopard. One large show in London had several hyenas trained to do tnclis- tney were performed by a stalwart negro, who, among other i'eats, fastened au iron belt aroiuid his waist, upon which were a ■ number of liooks arranged like those we see in butcher's sliop. On these steel hooks were stuck iieces of raw and bloody meat, whicli the animáis were permitted to (ake off with their teeth ; when they had done their tricks. Their j performances were similar to those of ! other animáis, consisting of various ; leaps over the keeper's back, over bars, through rings, and over banners, together with taking part in sundry posturing and grouping, of which the inau is always the central figuro. Zebras have been so often broken to harneas within the past ten or a dozen years, that the old notion of their imtumablc nat me has about faded out of I recolleetion. It is by no means uncom! mon to see zebras driven about the ring in harnees by circus managers. The gnu, or horned horse, formerly j thought to be the unicorn of the Bible, I is another of the so-called uütamable. ! He has, however, been subdued to about tho same extent as Dan Rice's rhinoceros ! - that is, simply to leading, and that, too, with the greatest precaution. Bears, those which are so tamc as to I walk the street comparatively unguarded, with the orgau grinders, are easily taught. : Bruin is simply a great, good-natured pig, rather diflinolined to activo exertion ! of all sorte. Having a particularly sitive spot in the instance of bis nose, he ! is coinparatively easy to manage. His j iutelligencc is nearly equal to tbat of the dog, and were it not for his unwieldly shape and his great weight and tendency j to corpuleuey oould easily bc brought to i do all the jixmp and rollings-over and othei feats of ogility in whioh the dog so much excels. The most that is required of him, however, is to climb poles and posts, to pass aroiand a tin cup for pennies, to go tlirough various semimilitary maueuvers with a stick in imitation of a gun, aud occasionally to take part in a simateted sparing matoli, in , whiob, slow as he is, he is certain to i win. Soinetimes poor bruin wül perfonu i a peculiar slow series of steps, whioh is i called a dance, and a well trained beai will even waltz with his master. Beyond the rough training elephants reoeive in the eountries where they are cnnght, Whioh tcachos 1hem to mimi the wólds of the keeper, and to subniit to iteneceesary boads, it has to undergo n special cducation to entibio it to go throngh its matiy tricks in the broad arena of the circus. Being more intelligent than a dog, as tractablo as a liorse, as f uil of pride and vanity as a wonian, and quite ns vvilling to learn as liis rnaster is to have him, his teaching is a matter oí but short time, He learnsby iinitation, and will adoijt a new trick from seeins imother animal perform it far