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Show AT THE CIRCUS Lion Tamer Has 538 Stitches Where Big Cats Clawed and Bit By AL JEDLICKA WNU Features. There is no doubt that the lion reigns as the king of beasts, says Terrell Jacobs of Barnes Brothers circus which opened its summer swing in the Chicago stadium. On the question, Jacobs who has broken over 500 beasts in 26 years, is even out with cats over two years of age since cubs up to two possess delicate deli-cate spinal vertebrae, injury to which may result in permanent kidney kid-ney trouble. Lions fresh from the jungle are preferred since native-born native-born animals, used to the fawning of crowds, are easily distracted and lack the single-mindedness of wild beasts. First, the cats are taught to walk down the ramp, with a collar and chain being applied to animals in cases where they are slow to respond. re-spond. Once the lion has learned to walk down the runway, he is next drilled to take his seat, with from six weeks to three months required for this training. Finally, the animals ani-mals are taught to mix. Some Are Good, Some Bad. Broken in at 2, the lions attain the led to philosophize a little. The lion is king, says Jacobs, because be-cause the Creator made him to be king by supplying him with a great bushy mane underneath his neck which prevents other beasts from ripping rip-ping his jugular vein while he claws them to pieces. Expert that he is, Jacobs has had his close calls in the cage and he can show 538 stitches on his body to prove it. Where the scarred flesh is depressed, that's where he was bitten, and where it's jagged, that's where he was clawed. No less than 54 wounds were inflicted in-flicted up in Minneapolis, Minn., where a leopard, frightened by the collapse of a wall of the arena, leaped from its stand and mauled Jacobs around before it was driven off. On another occasion, one lion came at him in Peru, Ind., and three others joined in to clamber atop of him before one cat came to his rescue res-cue and snapped at his attackers. "No, it wasn't any case of loyalty," loyal-ty," he adds. "The rescuer just saw a good chance to rip into some of the others it didn't like." ' Cats Are Not Loyal. Cracking his whip and firing his .38 revolver, Jacobs enters the huge circular cage to get the roaring and snarling cats to climb up onto their stands and sit, and then clamber down to lie down in a cluster before be-fore him. While shaggy "Sammy" walks a tight-rope and rolls a barrel to him, "Sheba" rises on her haunches to follow Jacobs in a ponderous pon-derous waltz. Born to the circus, the stocky, muscular mus-cular Jacobs is the coolest person in the house when he steps into the cage. Precisely because of the danger dan-ger which confronts him with each performance and the prime importance impor-tance of headwork in handling full maturity at 7, and are retired from the show at 12, though they may live to be 18 or 20. They are very much like people, Jacobs said, some being good, some bad, some bright, others slow. While only so much can be accomplished with animals, daily year-round association associ-ation With them enables a trainer to perceive their capabilities more closely and discover new qualities for exploitation. Jacobs' attachment to a menagerie menag-erie when he first joined the circus led to , his - employment as an apprentice ap-prentice to a Swiss lion-tamer, and the experience he acquired permitted permit-ted him to take over the act when his boss returned to the old country. coun-try. Starting with 5 lions, he steadily stead-ily broadened his act, the high point arriving when he appeared with 150 animals in one of Johnny Weismuller's Weismul-ler's "Tarzan" motion pictures. beasts, he must remain cool to assure as-sure his own safety. Young Ones Easily Injured. When it comes to taming lions and tigers, headwork plays the chief role, Jacobs says. By studying the antics of a cat, a trainer can obtain a knowledge of his peculiarities and then strive to counteract them. For instance, whenMacobs first sought to teach a lion to roll a barrel to him, the cat would slide off the sloping end and upset it. Failing to get the animal to push the barrel ahead, Jacobs then fastened an angle iron flange around the center to cut into the dirt and hold it straight. In that way the lion was taught to keep an even course. In training lions, Jacobs starts |