Clever Cats.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 346, 27 February 1889, Page 3

Clever Cats.

' Any morning at half-past eleven I shall be glad io show you my cats practising and to have a chat with you.' So wiotc Mr Leoni Clarice, and at haff-past eleven next morning I met him on tho stage of the Pavilion to witness the lehearsal. 1 found Mr Clarke hard at work in his shirt-sleeves rigging up his apparatus, and planning some improvements. ' I have always to 'be making out something new,' he said, and unless my trpupe are put through their drill every day tlioy would s-oon get out of practice. The young ones have to be taught, and the old ones kept up to the mark, f<o I'm generally pretty busy. Where did I begin this business? Well, I made a etait with it at a Dublfti music hall. 1 By this time the cats are* arm ing. They aie brought dovvn fr^n.tljpir comfortable quarters at the top of the house in live large coveied baskets, and the first step is to tiansfev them irom these baskets to the shelves of a couple of wooden houses or sheds at eithtr side ot the stage. They make their en dies and exits before the audience by little doors like pigeon-holes, and an asr -octant stationed in each house keeps them iioin qunnelling, and acts the part ot call-boy by sending them on at the proper time. As each bas ket is opened one sees a variegated ma«s of soft fur, out of which six heads project and six pairs of bright eyes look up with a quiet, self-satisfied air that tells of kindness and good treatment. There is no anxious cowering anywhere. And from the outset there h proof of good training. The cats do not jump out of thp baskets. They wait till they are handed one by 'one to their places. As they are passed along Mi Claike asks me to feel the weight of them, especially of one shaggy animal from Russia answering to the appiopriate name of Moscow, the giant of the troupe. 'I ha\e a bigger one at home,' says Mr Clarke ; ' 1 feed them well ; they have a right to a fail shaieof what they earn— and they get it. Inquiring further as to diet, I learn that they have two good meals a day — at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.— so that there is time for a re.st before the morning reheuisal and the evening performance. It is quite a mistake to suppose that animals will be moio tractable by being half star/ed, and these clever cats have hard wouc to do, which requires a libeial diet , so they aie regaled with meat, ! fish, and milk ad libitum ' Twenty-live pussies attend at tho reheal sal this morning — all colouis, all sizes, irom big black and white Moscow down to a pair of little kittens ju<-t able to get about. Tbeie are also seveial nationalities icpicsenterl — English and Manx cat«, two Russians, one Hpaniaid, a long - limbed white and toi toiseshell cat that is the liveliest pl.i^er of the lot. Fireworks is the name of this Spanish lady ; she comes from Valladohd, and f-iie quite deceives her name. ' Eight toes 'is tho appioniiate name i>f inothei pus*, a black and white, with eight peifectly formed toes and clays on each of ks— forepa>vs, a malformation which gives her some advantage in rope-walking. They cross and recioss the stage, travel sing it on tho tops of a row of chain p.igne bottler ; they bound through wire hoops, they walk a tight rope, they scramble Up and down cloth-covered boards placed almost at the vert cal In walking the tight rope they have to pick their way among white rats and mice and canaries perched at intervals on the lope, a feat which lee.ills the ' happy family' of the streets. In the e\ening only the finished performers appear before the public, but at the reheat sal learners of all ages are put through their drill. Mi Clarke does all hi 13 work by gentle means. Patience and kind encouiagement are his methods.