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Show 1 v.S TUDIES INT H R I LLING L IVES : I : The Wild Animal Trainer ,f if I fclB, ' ''BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON . 6 I wi - "ones, ... .. " w JAfcS f Smith, tee old Hagenback trainer, finished putting tixtra ancle bar over "'e cage of big Ben, the lion, ire ho answered 013 question: "Hove you ever had any narrow escapes?" "les, lots." he said, simply. "On the veldt, also I rndm, and in the arena, too, though not so many ! jijl,'11 e about ono in the aren3. Have- somo du? -No? Oh. you smoke. All right." He tapped ' Mld German snuff box fondlv and put it back in his V "I think well of that snuff box," ho said. U : This nappeued in Chicago, in a tent show. We a big crowd, mebbc live thousand people, and I , is .putting on the big act, four lions and four tigers raiatra tigers; ver' bad ones! i "I stood between them. See? Lions on oue side id tigers on Lho other; and first I made the lions per-rm. per-rm. Now, remember 3-011 must never tako eves off ?ers, never! And you must not turn your back to I em. o. never! Not no quick as thatl See? Not ( ha moment. - k, V.)7el!' ,n.0' one of the 'lions was pig-headed. Ho tfstill on his stool and would not take' his cuejust land1 snarl and show his teeth when I crack whip. Ol?s a11 riclit. With time I could make him mind, it the1 laanager was veiling at me: 3t" 'Cut the net! Cut the act! be says. So I tried Jjtwike that lion perform quick- 5 'I shoot at him blank cartridges one, two, Ao use. Then I take fork, holding butt end sinEt my body, like this. He raise his paw. cuff the rk once, and it breaks off close to mv hand. No good! , Scnt act, I says. Then I think about tigers. U fj' . vhc umc keeP oac cvc on them, and now f Weulv L see look in eye of big one I do not like. I Ebbeiie sees something in my eve, too. No, not fear, lever rear. But I was thinking. There I was, with I' two shots left in pistol, and just u coach whin I a small club, the broken end of the fork. And I Man t get out not unless I turn my back to tigers, 1 that never! IF "Now is the critical time. I must be master and ike command sharp, quick like this!" .4 Suddenly Smith's calm, honest Gorman features came dominant, ferocious. ITis eves under his beet-f2 beet-f2 'f,br?w'3 shot fire, his moustache bristled till his red 9 ?tu snowed, his heavy chest swelled and his voice Sis feet- ral'lcrs of tno menagerie as ho stamped (j l''SuHaii! Get up! Sulrau, du sehlochtes " I I u cul, s!mth Kround bis teeth and shrugged his sail ra; ,.:No l'0" Xo eood. Sultan's eyes grew nail and his head grew fiat, and ho begin to crouch guat eo slowly so slowly down. Bang! ttaug! I lire my last two shots. Ach! ?. He goes down, down, till his head meet his paws "I nis buck rise up. and hia tail stand straight in k7, an(1 1 C0 his muscles stiffen and I know feat 's coming. "? l'T b?"d stop playing, and the music all die I -r 'i 7iUt m tue icnt tl,cro s 110 sound none. And 5 STui 1th0 c.nc a,-(? those assistants fools; dander- j&V 1,nn15! sending there with forks in hands. I Tnc' .st"' doinK nothing, helping me not at all! I M r - in f)"clr of many foolish things then! I I" ,clr GoU! My sn"ff box! Mv snuff box! i anjdTC9cs In locket so quick! Like that! Ren. and I clap whole handful in his eyes rub it in - rTilr"nT 0ack aml alI is over. e fc.ii t:V a!ul h.ack P flo ana oht 'low lio roll Ivl A?nd rub v,th- h,s Pavrs- 1 stanl P straight, S-eaw,h,P once- twice loud and back out. I am L?jtb ca?ea sih of relief as he reached for hir, mfl dvreifull,t00.k a T'ill;n of snuff. "Iam ven mat this box, ' ' said he. " Eh ? " Lai ; cp"JJine animal trainer is as scarco au indi-niiiVbls indi-niiiVbls ,co"ntrv. U would seem, as the real I Ei ; a,nd afr y" haye tramped about the 1,7 1 s, aim amusement places and bothered , ,1; .i-l"-maI importers to 110 avail, you have a liatibfactioii in meeting a man like Smith. Mis roul name is Schmidt, and he was born in Au '"then sixty-three years ago. He has been inti- canll1? wltU rwi,d, anil"al3 for more than couBccitive years for I.e. ran away from homo om tt;T iyCars old and vloinod lh(J staff of the ein,fwltsburc m"se"- Upon the death of his SSftnf be rDiw.tlo elder Carl Hugonback e. JIi remained there for three years under Dr. th fvr 011 sccretarv ?f ho German colonics in mo ' il ve,rv .Prominent zoologist. After this 6 fit! i SnnZ """"Pd training experience. 0 s LxT l mld anin,aI"' Tt. is his 1'oast that is not one ho cannot subdue by kindness, mi tiust mal theui respect you." he said ?8 By aSW ifiaoipHno' bl? t kindness at "T i nd Jy 1,tcA yu morc about thai. T r 2n-v fit lesson from Mr. Hagenback. First " ?2 'pi, 8ay, ri,.,lt .f 110 15ck yu?J ueh' Atia t 1 thcro 18 ilmci' 9JVVS he- 'Tnio T' Anl I always remember that' thv r,,Jl-oro5fcln2 a,ld ver.v unusual, too, arc IPwark rtera at Hillside Park, south of I out i ' &,9 lar !AS 1 can learn they contain Si vm,U.pafc hl"s finger slyly alongside his nose 'I 8s51wmrEBCrc (out i,l,B sh0"' business Kobbi totly al? Z-va.ot-hk, ",e t0 tel1 it- but 1 toll vou. ioB-lliki 'n,0" nimals are tame. So! The- fow'bad fat's all Sumatra tiger-arc badly trained never once has there been any trouble. Why? Be-causo Be-causo the animals are all tame. So with most show animals just exactly the same. "You hear of this Wallace act? That, is ono grand fake. It is all right to fool the audionce peoplo liko to bo fooleod, all right. But you should not kill fine- . auiraals to do that. "Yes. sir. In this Wallace act is an untamable lion, and, trainer goes in cage and subdues. That is . what the audience sees. Some things they don't see. "First thej tako the lion and give him dopo to make him crazy. Then they prod him and shoot at him till he snarl and roar and act wild. Is that right? "Last summer thv had Wallace act at Conev Island. They used Alice, a Nubian lioness, that 1 trained mj'self, a regular pet and harmless as a kitten. Wcll..the3 make her act wild, and by and by she gets ill. They send for me. "I ljnd her ven- ill, with high fever and catarrh, her e3cs bleared, and shaking all over. 'Aha!' say I. 'The Wallace act! Very well, gentlemen. You kcop up the Wallace act and you loso her in ono week's time.' Then I got mad. 'You stop this infernal business, busi-ness, now,' said I. 'or elso I will report you. I, myself, my-self, will do it, right awa.y. ' "It was a shame." said Smith earnestly. "When ooor Alice see me she cry and jump all" over me, bogging me to take her homo and treat her right. And thc' had her in the Wallaco act untam2blo lioness huh!" sniffed Smith contemDtuousb. "But they have terrible accidents in shows," I said. "Sure," said Smith; "but why? Bad training and carelessness, that's all. I got clawed myself oncd, but it was my own fault. You go all over tho world and ask any good trainer, lie will tell 3-011 same thing. "There is lots of bad training nowadays, and so there are man 3' accidents. I tell j'ou how that is. "A good Irainor starts an act. nis assistant watches him and learns tho cues. Pretty so,on this afisistant is readv to do the act himself, aiid t)ic showman show-man comes around. 'Very sony, Mr. Smith,' sa3-3.no,. 'but I can't afford to pay 3-ou such high wages.' So the assistant gets our job. "Ven well. Ho knows the cues, but he doesn't know the animal. And pretty soon something haopous. You know what salaries theso fellows get? Fifteen dollars a week, maybe, most often oul- niue. And the countrv is full of them. "It is all wrong hero. In Germany thoro is a school of training, and a man cannot act "as trainer unless un-less he takes tho full course. That is right. It is very dangerous work. A man should havo a liconsc. It would save the animals, too. "A mouth ago a 3-ouug trainer puts 011 an act hero with two bears. He takes them in arena and starts to put muzzles on. That is part of act to fool ar.dionco. Thevwcro lame, both of them. "Well, he starts putting muzzles on wrong way underneath mouth instead of over head. '"Don't do that,' I said. 'Thoy will snap at them.' " 'Who's doing ibis." said he. "Well, they did snap, and then ho takes the butt oiid of the whip and cracks them over tho noscf the tcudercst part of a bear until the blood jumps out in streams. "I ran up and onto tho stage and grabbed his whip. 'Enough.1 says I. 'You fool, ever I see you do that again I will crack your. nose- same way. Understand Under-stand ? ' "Nov that." said Smith, "is the kind of a trainer that spoiled tho Sumatra tigor which almost got me." Smith led me over to the cage of big Ben, said to be tho largest lion in captivity today. The magnificent great maned animal he breaks an 'inch board with a ilap of his tail sprawled lazily at full length, the female fe-male close "beside him. "That Ben," snid Smith, "shows what bad training train-ing will do. Ho was four years on the road before ho came here. During that time he had, mebbe. fifty of these amateur trainers. Two of them he killed and five he knocked out. Now ho's impossible to train, and we uso him as a stock animal. But ho's a good bov now, a good bo3 lie's my watch dog. When anything goes wrong at night he roars and gives a signal bv . fiapping his tail. "Come! Be mv good boy! Come, Ben!" The great beast raised his head and smilod, if a lion does smile, and made everv effort, in his ponderous, ponder-ous, majestic fashiou, to show his affection, rubbing his head against tho iron bars and finally arising audi, stretching his length agaiust ihem so that 'the trainer could nib his back. "Now I go in cage," said Smith. And grabbing a fork ho scuttled through a side door, around, and fiud-- fiud-- denly opened and stood in the back door of tho cage. 'Down, Ben!" bo said sternly. Tho lion, from force of habit it would scorn, snarled a bit, but quickly hung his head as if ashamed, and swung it to and fro, with lialf-closed- eyes, waiting wait-ing for the caress he well expected. Smith rubbed his oars roughly and slappod his head as one would pet a big dog. "See?" he said. "No use asking him to shake hnnda or perform. He won't. But ho is good now. I mako him like me, that's all. "Beu's brother Noro." said Smith, when he came out. "ho kill four trainers, and Sultan, his other brother, he kill five. All mistakes, every one. j "I was in Pittsburg when Ben killed Tony Miners. y Tony, he was too fresh, and I-warned him when he went into tho cage. But ho know it. all. v "He walk right in and give Ben a poke iu tho ribs i '.'Got up!' he say. Ben get up, but ho raise up s on hind-legs, and ho snarl, as much' as to oav. 'What you want with me?' . ' n " 'Look ciifTon-,!-1 I'yell. but too lato. Bon strike n ou.f and.iip go his. claws. Iiip! Itip! And Tony is gouo! . ; .f Same 'way with "Louis-Brier, " .continued Smith. a h V, , , , An Ansrv Puma. 'That was in Gcrmanv. Caesar got him. But I mu ro back and tell you about Caesar. "Some years ago I was hunting in Africa f ragenbaok. I walked one day across a big veldt, ai laid down nt noon to rest iu tho shadow of a b ock, as big as this house. "Suddenly I heard a noise, a scraping noise, abo no 011 the rock. I know what that is a lion, sharpc ng his claws, as tho Arabs sa3'. Then I look up ai co his big head. He is looking down at me. "I grabbed my gun and shoot straight up. It w, luck' shot up under his neck and through his brai nd he comes tumbling down before mo dead. '.Then T hear a roar from behind tho rock tl eiuale! I. am mad thou with shooting 'and I 1 round aud get hcr'-too. But when, after a bit He Has Lenned H il . Kead. HI l The First Lesson. go up to whore she jumped up, there aro two littlo cubs suckling at her breast. I see them and tho water -omos into , my eyes. Dear me! I feel preltv bad about that, and 1 take them homo ono under each arm. "It was hard to nurse them. I tried bottles aud a nanny goat. Then T put my lingers in a pan of milk and they would drink by sucking them. All right for thorn, but not so well for me. Thoy took tho skin off my fingers almost down to the bone. " A lion 's tongue-is tongue-is sharp, liko a rasp. "Well, theso cubs played in a little yard behind the kraal, and ono morning I goes out and thero arc four instead of two. Two moru had lost their mother. .1 suppose through some fool hunter liko myself, and came (0 join 1113' cubs. "All this "time I was writing Hagenback about them, and ono day ho writes mo a nice letter. 'If vou are so stuck on those cubs.' gays he, 'you better keep them yoursolf, ' So the' aro mine. "Next thing I am arrostod in Strassburg, Germany, Ger-many, for walking along the stroot with four voun" lions following my heels. You seo, I am away so long st I forget that people are scared of lions, and thoy aro so tame. They sleep in my bed sometimes, aud always or in the morning tho biggest one, Caosar, he comes id knocking at my door, and if I don't lot him in ho just ig smash door in. So! "This Caosar was tho most good uatured lion I vo over knew, but he was awful pig-headed. That is his u- character, and you must treat him accordingly, undor-id undor-id stand? Just exactly liko you treat 'our friends. You grow to know their character and are what you call as it? diplomatic. Well, samo way with all animals, n, This Caesar you could do anything with: ho was very easy, but you must handle him his wav. You see? 10 "Well, ono day I forget this. I am putting on act jo . and my Caesar is pig-headed. ITo sit 111 corner and I act-aaasy. Now," wholo troublo was ho-was jealous. He want me to come over and mako a. tuss over mm. But I am in burr" and irritated, so T walk over and MM slap his face so. Then I turn ah! . WM "Kip!, his claws co down m- back aud eaten m fil l my pistol belt. I wriggle out and make tor door, 91 thou 1 feel warm all over my back and I see my "ghts 'tf&jfl nrew red. Well, I am back again in a nour.- littlo wtM stiff and sore, but all right. In all my fifty years' ex- yHH poriouco that is only timo I am hurt; all by my own mm fault, mm "Now I come to Louis Bner. BE "This Louis, he was sassy, loo, nust like Caesar. mm aud when ho comes to Hamburg to get Caesar and. MM take him down to Wurtzburg, in Bavaria, I am uueasy, mm and tell him so. ... , hUM " 'Oh ohl' he laugh. 'T m not airaid. I show 8 flfl hini." , , WM " 'Look out,' I Pay, 'he don't show vou.' ftljH "Well, first week ovorything goes all right. Thou ImM conies a telegram to me: 'Como at once to Wurt;- WbM burg." and I know what has happened. Louis is etgjH caught! T . , . ... OBI "So the manager tell nie whoa I inoet him at the B(I door of the menagerio. (ifljl "' How did it happen?' I ask. i3l " 'I do not know,' ho says. 'It was at morning (E rehearsal, and suddenly I hoar a terrible scream. An- lifsll other! Then all is quiet. When I rush into cage there Vmm is Louis in pieces, all over the floor of cage. Wr fflftm havo not yet cleaned the cage. Caesar is awful mad. K- " 'Come,' I said. 'I go in.' . m 7(1 f I " 'No! No! ' he says. 'Moin Goit! Not yet! The Ml rage is still in him Caesar! ' IS H "So soon as mv Caesar seo me ho run and rub t agaiu&t mo and make noiso like a baby. Awful sorry !jj he is for doing wrong. I look at Iiis teeth and there- mtt is no blood. They just tensed him and he fought back IM M tho only wav ho knew how. Sjff H "But poor Louis! Ach!" . . , "Often you hoar stories," coutinued Snutn, ot in H man-eating lions. That is mostly foolishness. H "In the wilderness you need not be afraid of lions. MS ! They never attack vou unless you make them. Se-v- if H oral times 1 havo met them on the veldt whea l was l unarmed. Onco, right bohind a rock. I camo iaco to- m fa co with a big lion. What happened? Why, wo looked at each other pretty long, it seemed to mcs Iff I and each walked awuj. " m H "But if they aro huugry and desperate?" H "Then thoro are other animals. TI103' are alwaH KM hungrv and always hunting. Sometimes they como I right into the village at night, but only aftor animals. m Thev will carry away a cow a very long distance. . f '"Animals fight to kill among themselves. A hger II aud an alligator will fight to the death. But all of . f I hern are afraid of man just little mau. Ain't that ill funnv? It Mm "No. there is much foolishness written. Just two & mt months ago I read an article in a magazine on training ;i 5H wild animals. That mako me mad. Such lies and jjl foolishness! M H "This article says that in training bears wo take usH oiit their claws by tho roots and put a ring in their yu nose; also wo whip them with stcol whins. Woll, I ?! H have been in the business fifty years and till now L H never hear of such things. Come here and I ?bow you t H somo bears." fli H tu tho further corner two full grown American. m H black bears aroso as Smith approached, and. standing Km H 011 their hind logs, clutched tho bars of the oago aud ? stuck out their tongues to lick thoir trainor's hand. m H "Nico bo Bruni! Nice girl, Dora!" Smith patlod their heads and thev rolled their eyes affec- ;'H tionately. "Now, you see, bore is Bruno, only two ilf weeks out of tho woods and wildnoss. He's nico boy M and good scholar. Thore is no ring in his noso and jf H ' you seo his claws. He ha rot bfen whinned but a few --III mm timos; aud you seo tho whip? Such a littlo ouol jf!H "Tho first whipping is a kindness. You teach Miem f H to mind, just liko you spank a child. But you do not i H hurt. You are always kind. That you must bo, ft"- H kindnoss is tho trainer's first protoctiou. Yrou catch that? His own protcctioiil" , 4H Y W mm r Ammmm |