SIX LIONS AT LARGE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 171, 24 March 1915, Page 2

SIX LIONS AT LARGE.

ONE KILLED BY POLICE PISTOLS

EXCITING SCENE IN A THEATRE.

There was an exciting sequel to the escape of the "six man-eating lions" from the Eighty-sixth Street Theatre (New York) on Thursday afternoon, December 17. The ordinary act for which Mme. Andree 'a lions were billet! had just been concluded, and the audience had leaned back in their chairs to listen to a male quartet, when shrieks were heard coming from behind rlie scenes, and the huge lions, which had escaped while being transferred from the big performing cage to smaller cages, were seen stealthily advancing across the stage. For a few seconds they blinked in the glare of the footlights, and the human beings and the beasts watched one another .silently. Then panic asserted itself, and shrieking men, women, and children made r frantic rush for the doors.

Before (hey could effec: v.r, eavape. however, the lions were among them

running up and down the *>b>k\s i:i an attempt to got out. Three policemen did their best to reassure the terrified vrowd, one shouting', "These aw harmless eats. Stay where you are. anj yon will be safe." In the meantime the lions in the darkened house silently pushed their way among the .struggling screaming playgoers, but nvide no attack. LIONESS IN TENEMENT HO¥SE. One animal finally gained the street and, after sauntering along for a bio:l< or two —having the whole thoroughfare to itself—took refuge from ihe 2old in a fourth-story tenement hous*. The police followed and foun3 the beast lying in the hall gnawing a bundle of old newspapers. They -w >i e preparing to make a >.;l-)0(Ilo»s eapt.-rp, when two w men of the tenement discovered the presence of the lion, and slammed tne door on i 1 as it lay across the threshold. That indignity roused its anger, and it bounded into the crowd of policemen, who greeted the attack witJi a volley of revolver shor-?. The beast, a lioness, fought gamely, knocking the pistol from the hand of one of the officers, inflicting a slight wound, then clawing another officer's scalp. Up and own the stairs thev fought in a fnsilado of shots two or which hit a policeman, inflicting severe, but. not fatal wounds, before" tlic lioness was killed.

Meanwhile, at the theatre the rest <:>*• the lions had been" rounded up without bloodshed, and coaxed bach to the csges, ono of the assarts being ». baker out of work, willing, he said, to do almost anything for broad. 9 lie ■iMiy harm resulting frcm their .escape had been a scratching of one man's forehead, a lion having stepped on him as he lay terror-stricken in the aisle. The beasts, all six years old, were bought as cubs from ;\[. Hagenbeek, 'ind were valued at £'oo each. Mine. A.r.droe, he" manager, aad her booking

agent were arrested, for criminal neg licence, but later were discharged.

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