TIGERS AT LARGE

Dunstan Times, Issue 1142, 21 March 1884, Page 3

TIGERS AT LARGE

That some sailors in Bengal once caught a tiger in a barrel is one of those facts that no one wishes to dispute. They put the barrel over it, and, getting the tiger's tail through the bunghole, tied a knot in i% and thus made Stripes a prisoner, ' It was a considerable feat in its wav ; but it has just been suscessfulty imitated at B-dton, During the recent holidays there has been a menagerie at that town, and one day there occurred, inside the canvas erection of the exhibition, what.reporters call “an exciting scdne ” A professional lion tamer had gone into a cage of wild beasts to show off his wonderful command over them, when a nimble young tiger, that had become dreadfully bored by such performances, dolged between the lion tamer’s legs and bounced out into the middle of the spectators. It wag at this point th.lt the “ exciting scene” began, for the uublio who hail collected to look at the beasts of prey inside their cages were prodigiously dismayed upon finding them coming ontaide, and there was a regular stampede. The tiger did all it coaid to reassure them. It got info a corner, and looked extremely wretched. But the pubwere not to be deceived by appearances. They looked upon this as one of ihc guileful artifices cf the beast of blood, and the more melancholy the tiger looked the more they shrieked and trampled upon one Soothe -. And then the tiger moaned in a conciliatory tone of voice, and this made matters worse. The crowd, in their panic, m stook the ani mala deprecating utterances for the growl of famished ferocity, and, crowding- ag-dnst the temporary woodwork of the place, brought the boardings down with a crash, and then, through the extemporised opening dispersed o”er the country with the utm st despatch. In the meantime the poor monster, heartily S "k of its outing, watched the assistants of the show coming to catch it in a barrel, and, falling in at once with their plans, gladly allowed itself to be extinguished with the hj gshead and trundled back into its cage Taking into calculation the initial veloctywith which the*-crowd started off running, it is supposed that many of them are still scattered over Lancashire, and he*d not be expected back in Bolton for some time. Nothing, as a rale, disconcerts a wild beast so much as unexpected freedom. It it has been accustomed to captivity, and become a creature of routine and without responsibilities, sudden release seems t.d he. wilder it. It loses its head, and behaves with unwound foolishness. The monkey is an exception to this, for when the other day at Manchester a menagerie caught fire, the monkeys, finding themselves lo'-se. immediately set to work at the nuts and gingerbread kept on sale-for.the spectators to feed the animals with, and, while everybody else was busy putting out the flames or saving the beasts and birds, had a great time all by themselves.. But then monkeys can hardly he called -wild beasts- Such creatures as tigers, bears and lions, when they get out of their cages, get into trouble at once. On one occasion, it is true, a linn, having escaped from Hengler’s, jumped in to a carrier’s cart that was going along the road, the dosing driver being utterly unconscious of the fare that he ban taken up, and, while everyone was scouring the neighbourhood for the formidable runaway, the lion was calmly jogging along the high road to t v e next town. But th s was quite exceptional. for as a rale the beasts of iprey, when suddenly confronted with unaccustomed liberty, are completely disconcerted by the novelty of the circumstances and their surroundings, and think only, of con-' cealment, It would be a very -different matter no doubt if a single spring from the cage landed a tiger plump into the middle of a familiar jungle. The shock of old associations, suddenly revived, might probably suffice to restore it at once to equanimity and self-possession. But for a tiger to creep out from under a canvas tent and find itself in the street of a manufactuing town, without the vestige of jungle in the neighbourhood, the first sensation must be bewildering in the extreme. It is not easy for lions, tigers, and bears, to hide themselves upon the pavem-nt. There is not much cover to lie got out of lamp posts. The gutter of a street is not suitable for an ambush ; the vehicles pass ng and repassing must in themselves be spectacles of surpassing dread. An omnibus is enough,to frighten any tiger that ever breathed. It is not | easy to imagine the consternation of a bear 1 in a thoriniglifare if it thought a -street car I was in pursuit of it. - Bet - a lion down? 1h i the busy part of day outside the Mansion , j HonSe, And the chances ' afe that ths poor | beast would have a fit if some one did not go ; to its assistance. Civilisation and its ap- | purtenancos have just the same benuujbing j effect upon wild animals ss being lost in i the forest or desert would have Upon a Londoner. They seem beset by dangers as daeadful as they are npveL Everything

Bpyrt tO W hS&i)e.’ their fib-l mfsidt) thuir cages, and un-iu« round for friends, j Ljke the cation, they are ijo soouafr ut they liegii} to wish tn-.y wore snhn aid info behind the bars of the public distnaya them. and ethe a uproot) iof the ‘* liontifiit of a kindly guardian.— -aphi