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A TALK WITH A TIGER TAMER.

Hiccins, the tiuer tamer, is of Irish birlli, ii tall, strong-framed, muscular man somewhere in the " fifties," quiet ircnerally, but, fund of speaking of hi< pets, and particularly of "Sammy" and •Jemmy," the notorious Toombul tigers. No place could be more .suitable for an interview with Mr. Hisreins than the marquee in which his wild animals are shown, and there a representative of this paper had a very interesting talk with him.

Once started on what is his one great hobby, the tiger-tamer readily answered any quest,inns put to him. He said " I could hardly tell you when I first took to animals. I was always fond of them.

nd was never without, some pets." But." said the interviewer, " I allude

to wild animals." " Oh, wild animals. Well, the first pet of that sort was u grizzly bear, when I was a young fellow

in California. He was a rough customer, and always in mischief. I afterwards was interested in lions, then with tigers, and followed up my inclination after I came to Australia."

Asked as to the dispositions of the various animals ho said :—" The lions aud tigers are about the only sort there is any danger in training, and the lions are by far the best to work with ; they are not so sulky nor so sly as the tigers, and they seem much more intelligent. If a lion is dangerous you soon know it, but

tigers you can never trust." " How do you feel when you go into a cage with performing tigers !" the interviewer asked. "Do you ever feel nervous, and is your safety dependent on your keeping the animals under your eye f" Higgins smiled, and his deep sunk clear blue eyes sparkled as though the very thought of a turn with the wild beasts roused him. "I feel," he said, quietly, " when I go intu the cage with my little whip in my hand that I am the master. I feel myself stronger than over, and as cool as I could ever bo. I seem to regard the tigers as rata, and feel as if I could shake them like rata. Why look at Jemmy and Sammy." The interviewer looked at the two magnificent specimens of the Royal Bengal as they paced up and down the cage. " You know they think I could thrash them both,"—this to the tigers—" don't you, you bad boys ?" The great brutes seemed to fear a whipping as Higgins approached them, and they skipped smartly round the cage. He continued his talk. " You know Sammy is pretty quiet, but that Jemmy is very sly. When I'm in the cage I have to watch him closely. He is always trying to slip behind me to get at me. That's when I have to keep him under my eye. It is not my eye he fears, and I don't believe the eye itself has any power over animals, except that thoy know they're watched. I was never nervous in my life. If I once got nervous they would be on to me like winking." "Do you ever anticipate a struggle with them ?" I asked.

" No," replied Higgine, twirling his whip. " I don't drink, except perhaps a glass of beer. The people who aro killed in cages cither lose their nerve or are in drink. An animal knows at once if you arc afraid of him, and—alluding to a terrible case in which a girl was torn to pieccs by lions some time ago—that woman must have become nervous. A man sometimes under drink will go into the cage and send the animals flying round, but he forgets to be careful, and before he knows where he is a beast is on him. The great thing is to let them know you are watching them. When Jemmy trios to givo me the slip I just shake the whip at him and say. " Ah, Jemmy, my boy, I'm watching you." We walked round the cages, and came to a fine tiger, African born. The brute jumped up as we approached, and dashed forward to the bars with a terrific roar. " It's me he's angry with," said Higgins, " Some months ago his wife had cubs, and I took her away from him and he hasn't forgiven me for it." The great brute growled and snarled, but Higgins walked up to it boldly, whip in hand, and drove it back into a corner, where it lay subdued but snarling. " Now," said the tamer, "watch him as I turn away spring for me." He turned, aud there was a blood-curdling roar, the great striped body dashed to the front of the cage, and the interviewer felt thankful that stout steel bars intervened between the tiger and—Higgins. The other male tiger, a Bengalee, and the finest in the menagerie, was next visited, then a she tiger, the mother of a fine pair of cubs, which unfortunately died and are preserved in the museum. She is with young again, and Higgins hopes to raise seme Queensland-born tigers. A black pantha from Java crouches away in the back of his cage, and, questioned regarding these brutes, Higgins said, "They can be tamed pretty much as the tigers, but I have not had time to do much with that fellow yet." A fine cheetah allowed the interviewer to stroke him down, and was put through various tricks by his trainer. Higgins then recounted his experience with the tiger Jemmy, on the day when it escaped into George-street, and nearly killed one of the keepers. It is only those who know what tigers are who can fully appreciate the bravery the " tiger tamer " showed on that oceassion. " 1 heard," ho said, " a scream and a roar, and looking round saw Jemmy after the man. The man was pulled down; got up asrain and managed to reach the middle of the street, and the tiger Dulled him down again, and opened its mouth to bite. A moment and the pot r fellow's head would have been cracked like a nut, but I jammed ray arm between the jaws and shoved the man away with the other. Look at my arm." Higgins bared his right arm and showed the healed wound, where the flesh had been cut as though by a knife. " Jemmy held on to me for a bit, but I scolded him, and he let me go. I felt eick, but got uo. and then started to try and get him inside. He walked about the street growling and licking the blood from his jawp. I walked after him, and regularly bundled him into the enclosure and phut the door. I hadn't even my little whip, but at last got him to stand up with his feet against a fence ; then I got his collar and chain and tied him up. I had then to get him back in his cago with Sammy, who was by that time very excited, and I went in and chained Sammy up, and then led master Jemmy in. Jemmy was very angry, too, and they began to fight. I managed to separate them, and beat them until they were quiet. By this time I was faint from loss of blood, and locked the cage and got my arm bandaged up." '' Did you feel at all nervous on that occasion ?" the interviewer asked. " No," was the reply, " I wasn't nervous, and it's a good job I wasn't. It was an ugly job getting the tiger back to the cage." Higgins in relating this incident, fully understands—as any person acquainted with the character of the tiger must—that ho did a feat which is without parallel. Ho certainly evinced remarkable courage, particularly as he knew the beast to be more than usually treacherous. The interview was closed by an invitation from Mr Higgins for our representative to accompany him into the cage where the Toombul tigers were pacing up and down. " There's no danger," ho said. Pressure of time alone prevented the interviewer from accepting so tempting an invitation. —Brisbane Telegraph.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18890914.2.32.10

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2680, 14 September 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,349

A TALK WITH A TIGER TAMER. Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2680, 14 September 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

A TALK WITH A TIGER TAMER. Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2680, 14 September 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

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