Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1885 — Strange Friendships. [ARTICLE]

Strange Friendships.

A wild animal, when free, seldom makes friends with a different kind of animal; but the most savage beast, cooped up in a little cage, will often be< ome greatly attached to some weak little creature which it would have scorned to notice when free. Just how animals make friends with each other and make the fact known it is hard even to guess. But they do it somehow, and two strange animals will come to enjoy each other’s society so much that they cannot bear to be separated. It is often noticed in menageries that elephants will make friends with dogs, and be perfectly miserable without them.

Lions, too, are often known to forget their savage nature, and lavish affection on animals as unlike themselves as it is possible to be. There is a noblelooking lion at the Central Park Menagerie who has only disdain for the men and women and children who stare at him, and indeed which would be only too glad of the chance to eat one of them, but which has allowed his affections to be won by a lot of tiny English sparrows, If you were to put your hand in the cage to stroke his tawny skin, no matter how good your intentions might be, he would tear it in shreds with his terrible paw; and yet he seems to enjoy having the birds hop all over him. Sometimes the fearless little creatures will perch almost on his very nose, as if to show how impudent they could be. But whatever they do, the royal captive only watches them with a sort of sleepy good-nature that seems to say that the birds may do as they please. In the Zoological Gardens at Paris they used to have a fierce young lion whose only friend was a poor little dog which had one day sneaked into the menagerie, and, when pursued, had leaped into the lion’s cage, where, to the astonishment of the keepers, he was cordially received. Perhaps the lion saw that the little dog and himself had the same enemy in common. However that may be, the lion adopted the dog for his dear friend, and would not allow him to be taken away. One morning, before any visitors had come, fortunately, the gate of the lion’s cage was carelessly left unfastened and the lion contrived to push it open and spring out. It is easy to imagine the confusion and terror that followed. The keepers fled for safety, and the great beast was truly monarch of the place. The first thought was to shoot him at once, but ohe of the more shrewd keepers proposed a plan for recapturing him. This man had noticed that the little dog had remained behind in the cage; so he stole up behind the cage, and, catching hold of the poor little fellow, began to whip him. Of course the dog howled piteously. At the first sound of the dog’s voice the lion, which had been angrily lashing its tail against its sides in front of a tiger’s cage, stopped and listened. As the howls continued, the mighty beast bounded savagely toward his cage, and seeing the keeper beating his friend leaped in. The gate was instantly closed and fastened, and the lion found that his friendship had cost him his liberty. The quick-witted keeper was richly rewarded, and to make up for his beating the little dog was made a pet of, and fed on the choicest bits of meat.

Sometimes the captive animals will have a strong affection for their keepers or trainers, but as a rule their obedience proceeds from fear and not from affection. One case of such an affection, however, is worth repeating. A trainer had a cage of animals, into which he was accustomed to go and perform with the animals —four leopards and a lion. The'lion was a fine beast, and well trained, but surly and difficult to control. One day, when the man entered the cage, the lion was very fierce, and refused to perform. The man spoke sternly, but the lion only crouched in one corner of the cage and growled angrily. The trainer then raised his whip and struck the beast a smart blow. In another instant the angry creature had sprung upon the daring man, and would have killed him had not the four leopards come to the rescue, and bravely taken the lion’s attention until some of the keepers came and rescued the fainting man. One of the leopards died from the wounds inflicted by the lion, and the others could never be induced again to perform with the savage beast. The annals of menageries are full of similar stories of friendships between different animals and between animals and men. —Harper's Young People.