With the Wild Beasts.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 March 1888, Page 6

With the Wild Beasts.

According to the old Roman legend, .Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, wore nursed by a wolf when they wero babies. These babies are supposed to have had no raolherto take care cfthem ; but nowadays mothers would as soon think of throwing their children into a, river as of giving them to wild beasts ; and yet cases | have happened whore wild beasts which would have been dangerous to grown people have been safe companions for very little children. In the Zoological Gardens in Antwerp a little boy scarcely able to w alk is permitted to go in among the lions, tigers, and leopards, and play with them a.s if they were only ordinary pussy cats. Jfo has not the .slightest fear of them, but pulls their tails and ear?, and pokes hislittle lingers in their eye.*, as babies will do ; and they never do any worse than move out of Ins way. It i« said to be a very pretty sight to sco that iair- skinned, big, blue-eyed baby com fortably seated by the side of a huge tiger ; his little dimpled hand perhaps pulling the taw ny sti ined coat of the monster. It may, indeed, be a pretty sight. But it must need .strong nerves to enable one to look at it with any pleasure, for to most persons ib will seem hardly possible that the fierce creature will not turn some time, and tear the innocent baby to pieces. The lifctlo fellow, however, has no more fear of any of the savage beasts in the menagerie than you would have of a lapflog. He was born there, and has been among the animals all his short life. Long before he could walk he wa& carried to the cages, and allowed to pat the tamest of the animals ; and before very long the}* began to show such ii&ns of pleasure at his coming thai in time they became fast friends ; and the keepers had no hesitation in putting the baby in the cage -with the uained leopards, mid afterwatdh uith. the lions and tigers. The leopnrd« were trusted first, because they are usually the mildeat-tempered and most affectionate of the wild animals. Instances aro known of leopards rescuing their keepers from other animals in the menagerie, and u very pretty story is told of one case when, through the instrumentality of a cage of leopards, a man and bis baby girl were saved from the attack of a aguar, oneottliemostnntameableof animalf'. The man travelled with the menagerie and its attached circus a.s a gymnast in the summer. Bub when the animals went) into winter quarters he was retained as a keeper, and lived with his family in a little cottage near by. Ncmeely a day passed that he did not take his baby daughter to see the animals ; and they, according to their custom, grew so fond of her that afc her coming most of them would make some sign of pleasure. Only one, a sullen brute ot a jaguar, refused to make friends, and always flattened down his ears and snarled when she was taken before his cage. With the leopards, on the oilier hand, she was particularly friendly ; and they liked nothing better than having her put her tiny hand through the bars to pat and stroke them. The thought of putting her in the cage with even the leopards had never occurred to him, however ; and probably never would have had not the jaguar forced it into his mind very suddenly one day. He had been cleaning the cages ; and, the procets being an unplea?ant one to tho jaguar, thab ferocious beast was in such a very ugly mood thab the man thought it best not to anger him any more by holding tho baby Ik- fore his cage. Consequently, he hurried past the cross animal, and thereby failed to notice that the cage fastening was so slipped that the door might easily be opened. He had reached the leopards, and was holding the baby so that she could reaob through the bars, when he heard a light* thud on the floor behind him, and, looking round, saw to his horror that tho jaguar> had oscaped, and, with blazing eyes, slow; waving tail, and crouched body, wusstealthily mo\ing towards him. His first feeling was a sickening fear. But he quickly recovered : and, with thfe marvellous vapidity the mind is capable of in emergencies, he sought for means of escape. He knew ho could not escape by eitliei door, for the lithe, active animal would overtake him before ho had gone ten paces. A pulley rope used foy hoisting quantities of meat or feed into the room dangled from the ceiling to the floor, and ottered him. safety had he not been encumbered with the baby. He could not climb the rope with her ; he would not desert her. And yet to stay there meant death to both. The desperate chance suggested itself to throw the baby among the leopards, andJ trust to their friendship ; while he would reach the rope, if not then too late. Almost as he thought it, he slipped the bolt, lifted the fastening, opened the dooi, pushed his baby in, shut the door, and then leaped for the rope. It was well for him' that he was a gymnast and could hand-over-hand up a rope, for he was barely out ef reach when the jaguar shot through the air,, and with ics terrible claws caught the rope just under one of his feet. After making several futile efforts +(>■ reach the man, the enraged animal tried toget into the leopards' cage, where the baby had been welcomed, and fortunately was kept in safety until help came and the jaguar was shot. You may be sure lba<» those leopards never lacked dainty bits oC food after that.