EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN A CIRCUS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2636, 20 June 1877, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN A CIRCUS.

Messrs Cooper, Bailey, and Co.'s circus season at Newcastle had a very sensational termination on the 23rd ult... The Newcastle Pilot supplies the following account of the disaster that occurred :— £Soon after the lights.had been lit, and entrance opened, the company began to stream in. About 1030 had gained admission, and were wandering around the big tent admiring the zoological- collection, when Mr Bailey saw that the wind 1 was rising so rapidly that a crowd could not assemble with safety. He therefore requested his visitors to withdraw, and receive their money afc tho pay-office. Not discerning the danger they objected, but as there was evidently a gale coming on, he became imperative. Ot course he. knew what danger was being chanced better than "his visitors. He ordered his men to stretch a rope across the tent so as to form a cordon, by means of which the people should be compelled to seek the entrance. Fortunately, he

managed (o get the tent cleav. Scarcely had he succeeded in doing so when he became a wave that the tent must go, and the fastenings were ordered to be loosened and the supports rem-vnl TWore lln's could be effected the gale struck the i-i-nt twice, and the second lime the monster mass of canvas, that was ist mntod to bo worth about £3000, was forcibly carried away and split and torn iulo fractions. Then ensued a scene of confusion. For'unately, the main staff were on (lie ground, and each man in his place. The gale turned over the cage containing the two magnificent lions, and the spring lock fastenings, ordinarily so safe, way The lion was half way out of the cage in J a moment, and in another secoud he and : the lioness would have heen at liberty, j face to face with a frightened confused crowd of over a thousand persons. Fortunately the keeper was there, and no sooner did the lion's head emerge than Johnson struck him a heavy blow with a club. The brute at once drew back, and the keeper threw himself on the door, which at once shut with its usual sharp snap. But quick and timely as the action had been, the lion when struck threw out his claw, and this came down on the keeper's aim, tearing through his heavy clothing, and causing the warm blord to flow. This, indeed, was a narrow escape. Had the two lions escaped, and the terriUed crowd run away, the probability is that there would have been accident. Johnson, the keeper, ha" great power over the lions in the cage, and can venture to them, but what his power would have been worth had they been out we can easily guess. Another feature almost borders on the ludicrous. The srlit and torn canvas enveloped a tnby elephant, and he was, taken away several yards by the force of the gust. .He commenced to howl, and ..the chorus wms. taken up by the large elephants. This was a warning"io the crowJ that it was time to clear away. The management of the company suffers heavily by the rent and damaged tent, but haJ the gust come on when several thousand persons were in the circus, there must hare been loss of life." , .