LIONESS AT LARGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1919, Page 2

LIONESS AT LARGE.

— I Pandemonium reigned for an hour in Woodbury, a New Jersey town, oil Ist May, when a lioness on exhibition in a circus sideshow killed her keeper before a small crowd of spectators, escaped from her cage, and bounded into a small clump of wood which adjoins the town. Men and boys armed with guns, pikes, and stones pursued the animal into the woods and finally killed her with a. fusiladc of more than 100 shots, 12 of which took effect. The “big show” was in progress before an audience of several hundred men, women and children, when John Henry, keeper of the lioness “Lucy” and her two cubs entered the sideshow cage. Drivinc the lioness into another compartment-. Henry carelessly swung shut the separating door and stopped to fondle the cubs. The enraged animal threw herself against the door, bursting it open, and with one leap closed her jaws about Henry's neck, crushing the bones and killing him instantly. Attendants in the tent shouted for help, and seizing iron bars, hooks and tent stakes, began to belabour the animal in an effort to compel her to release her grip on the dead man. Infuriated further by the blows, the lioness threw herself against the outer door of the cage which Henry had failed to lock, and escaped to a wood nearby. Circus attendants accompanied by men and boys of Woodbury invaded the wood, and after a thrilling chase cornered belaud ended her life.