| Show J a a 1 1 O a I 1 Mrs lira Herman Bern Experiences in in CI Cron ron in her er Af AC African A 4 rican hunting costume co s t u m c and the Wilds of Darkest r seated on the eI a huge lion killed carcass she has of ofa y fm m t rv 3 31 S ant m 4 f ff f f f Africa Which Pretty t i. i i 5 4 I 4 Sis and Fearless Mrs hrs i I. I 1 Cron Insists Never 1 Excited Her HerVery f Very Much 4 j d t J 2 c. c 1 f t P b a J y ti t t 7 J. J K t y F y f J I t 1 s J r t tin in d M Z t w f f f j J X Jf 0 d. d r It f ff 1 0 U i L' L i V i t Li i. i i y tJ NE mid afternoon while the jun jungle ONE O gle drowsed and the heat covered the land like a 3 blanket young Mrs firs Herman Cron of New York Germany Ger Ger- Germany many darkest Africa and way stations was taking a up close-up photograph of a huge male rhinoceros she had found sleeping in a clearing Suddenly the animal woke up ap saw what was in the wind decided he didn't need any publicity just then and charged with all the tremendous speed those gro gro- grotesque grotesque tesque and seemingly awkward beasts beas are possessed of Mrs Cron was unarmed and both hands were occupied with the camera out Jut Mr Cron was not and he fired tired when the rhino was venty Fenty feet away The animal was hit but still came carne ani Cron fired again at ten feet and the bullet went home The rhino lurched but regained his footing and continued his hh charge I It was the third shot that downed and Killed the maddened brute and he be was rive 1 e feet from the intrepid young youn hunt hunt- ess when he was hit you frightened ned the re re- reporter reporter reporter porter asked the very chic and very blonde and beautifully poised Mrs Cron when she returned to America aboard the Leviathan the other day dayNo dayNo No not frightened ed she answered without a trace of self But beginning to be a little bit con can The incident is thus related at the be beginning sinning ginning of this story that the reader may mar marget get Mrs Crons Cron's point of view view because because the lady herself says sa S 'S with some heat that rhino and lion hunting and such isn't really exciting at alL Just what she means by excitement may be imagined by those thousands to whom the situation outlined above would be fuller of thrills than comfort On another afternoon she and her husband hus- hus hu band Jand came upon a band of eight hungry lions when they really weren't looking for lions but were trailing distant buffalo Once a lioness charged after she was wounded and was eight feet from the tho when Mr Crons Cron's bullet reached the vital ital spot and the big cat rolled dead at her feet o Not to forget the first lion shei shee ever evershot evershot shot which measured within half an inch of the largest lion on record and was a anoble anoble anoble noble specimen of his kind However one gets used to such little things in time the huntress finds and an d omes to consider them part of the ad adventure adventure venture like the heat and the dust and an d he thirst and the snakes and the fearful noises S that issue from the jungle a at t light 31 She is the wife of a young German Germa n game ig hunter who always accompanies raves aDles her on on her African adventures and the daughter of the late John U. U Gans Cans steamship magnates magnate W I f w w Q t c N 1 iJ I On the right Mrs Cron and q two of her hunt hunt- hunting hunting s ing companions y photographed J n t beside the rhinoceros rhinoceros ij that hat t L t tj 11 A was brought r. r down with a r rt P f l tta f well aimed d but bul bullet ul J let just in an time timeto to save her life t t i m 1 r J t. t 1 I i As a girl she shen d o r 1 lived in lD a house on ona t I JJ a n high hill on t dt r Staten Island that rW f. f tt tf overlooked the sea f y i. i fi For her Africa Afric has all the fascination fk liR that it has had or lor orthe orthe 1 the male mighty r if hunters bunters and t ti explorers ers era and exploiters f V g r tN 1 of the past the past the L. J went to it and loved it and hated it and cursed it and nd left it and then went back again And she talks as those men have often talked talked inveighing inveighing against those who romanticize ro ro- romanticize romanticize that mysterious continent and then relating Incidents that prove life there can be bo more exciting than the wildest dream of a romancer She will for instance promise to tell you of a mild encounter while out on the trail then recount a narrative that will make your hair stand st.-md on end even at nt this safe distance Probably the story of the lioness that brought down her ber fate on her own fool foolish ish head as many another lady has done beyond the thc African bush is as interesting interest interest- interesting interestIng ing as any of these mild encounters of young Mrs Cron As she tells you be be- before before fore starting the story it is very un un- sportsmanlike to kill a lion from a boma or thorn ambush All good sports consider that he quarry must be given civen a fighting chance which the tho full daylight and the chance chan e eto to see the t e strange enemy man provide But for observing the lion ion and for flashlight photographs there is no place so good as a boma And so it happened that Mrs Cron decided to try her luck luckin luckin luckin in one If a very fine lion with a great Teat mane mano should possibly present himself why his chances would be small Other Other- Otherwise Otherwise wise there would be bo a good chance for pictures For or twenty-nine twenty nights Mrs Cron watched within her thorn enclosure Outside she had fastened the kill a kill a freshly killed zebra pegged pe ged down stoutly into the ho ground Hunters gen genn generally fasten the kill rather near he boma but Mrs Cron had hers about fifty feet away Finally Finall after endless waiting wait wait- waiting ing the evening of action arrived Alfred Klein a 1 hunter connected with the American Museum of Natural Ills Ilia- One of the th e 00 s numerous S x trophies t of i j Mrs rs Crons Cron's 5 African hunts in in her husbands husband's German t f hunting s1 t r lodge yM z y w w y Ar t a t f Mr and Mrs M n. n Cross Cron r and the lion cub I they brought back a from Africa th other day 4 1 I Iy y J 1 I 4 S. S I V tory and she shared the boma that night They had crawled in through the opening before sunset and had bad fastened a flashlight high up in the roof of the boma so they could turn it on the animal should occasion arise It was very dark at first within the thorn enclosure 0 o dark each could not see just where the theother theother theother other was wa Outside was the bait firmly pegged down And far far away away they could c uld hear the unlovely screech of that outlaw of the forest the hyena Finally the hyena ena cries came nearer Soon several of the ungainly smell foul ing in animals surrounded the bait They fell upon the dead zebra while Mrs Mra Cron and Mr Klein within the boma could have wept tears of vexation There were those renegades devouring the bait set fet to lure Sure the grand crand monarch of the forest forest- But all they could do was to bide their time Then as Mrs Cron recalls she must have dozed a bit When she wakened things were taking on a very different face indeed Far off very off very very far olf oil they could hear the dull roar which meant one lion They listened not dar daring daring ing to speak Two lions One deep- deep baying ba ing well- well chap was undoubtedly a a. a grown crown male they had h d heard beard about and desired with a mighty longing The Tho Theother Theother other less deep was a female Now the lion as Mrs Mr Cron explains is a ventriloquist and can modify his calls so the hunter cannot possibly tell teU from what direction he is calling oar not exactly how bow far he is 18 away However this great Teat male lion kept calling callin and call calling ing while from hoarse to loud and clear- clear cut his cries progressed rapidly When the two waiters waiter in to the boma knew h be e was not far away the hyenas about the th e kill scampered off c h Then at the ragged edge of the woods the cries stopped The two in the boma could dimly see two great hulking figures halt cautiously and apparently confer whether they should venture In hz Inthe n the open or pass up the tasty meal that the hyenas h enas hadn't finished It was an aching wait a painful wait a wait fraught with all manner of hopes and discouragements The pair in the boma raised their binoculars they felt for the flashlight to see that it was ready in case of need they felt for their heavy rifles Then they waited some Borne more Meanwhile a little bitof bit of a moon came out from behind some clouds and far off down the forest a baboon bab on wakened and restless cried out Far away jackals sent up their cries of derision while the pair of lions still hesitated At last lost something stirred out of the edge of the wood Mrs Cron strained her eyes through the binoculars Klein did the same They could hardly keep back their sighs of disappointment when they saw gingerly emerging from the woods not the great creat male which they coveted but his more adventuring spouse The lioness advanced circumspectly and fell upon the bait She ate slowly and deliberately She stopped for long intervals looking about deliberate never quite satisfied Sometimes she turned her head toward her mate wait- wait ing cannily under cover But he did not budge T Tie e pair in the boma born a could have cried aloud for soon there would be no DO bait left to attract the male lion Yet they could do nothing They didn't want to shoot the female female she she was not DOt a prize animal And if they shot her to save the bait that very shot would scare the male lion away for all time Suddenly just a little before day day- daybreak daybreak break the deliberate lioness abruptly stopped eating and dashed straight to to- toward toward toward ward the thorn barricade She hurled herself against the thorns Within five feet of Mrs l Cron she fell tell to the ground probably brought up by a thorn landing landin landingin in some sensitive part of her body In that second Klein shot The bullet passed in and out of her cheek as she lay prone The wound as Mrs l Cron explains and the noise of the shot thoroughly confused the lioness for a few blessed seconds Then she arose and at a gal gal- r o r w I IA I II A recent pho photograph of Mrs Cron showing how r the huntress looks in inthe inthe the garb of civilized life I lop trotted tr toward the tho back of the boma where the thorn barricade was better built than at the point there she almost entered 1 Klein Jein shot again and the tho lioness felL Her IIer breathing came in gasps each at ata ata ata a longer interval Soon it stopped al at together There was a long silence Then Mrs Cron detected another breath She whispered Not dead yeti yet In that instant the animal was on her feet and starting for them again A third shot reached her and she turned and passed into the bush The hunters waited there in an aching suspense until morning The one event even which punctuated the wait came when the male lion emerged from his ambush trotted along the edge of the woods and disappeared from sight A lioness pos pos- possibly possibly sibly still alive in the bush is no Joking matter and so they kept very quiet At daybreak they were able to make their escape Next night we waited says Mrs Cron hoping the male would return He lie never came near lIe He was a most unfeeling husband But another lioness edged out of the bushes some time after af r midnight and called and called and called It was the most plaintive cry 1 I ever heard from a lion 1 I wanted to cry back It isn't our fault 1 We didn't want to kill sister I your She forced us to shoot I She forced us I Civilization in Africa is is penetrating further and further inland says Mrs Cron For the first part of a hunting trip the lady of the party can have her toilet table and her bath in her portable bathtub at any hour of ot the day But Bat when at last the party reaches ika a district far from Nairobi then the boys and equipment are reduced to the last essential Then we have to economize even eveD on OD water she says To wash your hands in a basin is a forbidden luxury All you can con have is a little dropped drop d into the cupped palms Baths are unheard of As for beds we had a little mattress half an on inch thick and a camp bed ot of canvas One night I 1 took the mattress and my husband the cot the next night we exchanged and the perpetual ques ques- question question question tion was WIlS which the was more uncomfortable uncomfortable able In to those last days far it seemed luxury hardly believable that ever again we would sleep in to real beds with clean white sheets sheet I 4 l. l or w oD r iun woe IM ur t 9 I t L I I |
