Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1894 — THE TALE OF A CHEETAH. [ARTICLE]

THE TALE OF A CHEETAH.

Probably every boy who reads this, or at least a big majority of them, have heard of the famous collection of lions and tigers and bears and wolves and other dangerous brutes that were shown here after amazing hundreds of thousands of people at the Chicago Fair by the tricks they performed under the orders of the fearless men and women who trained them, Not very long ago the writer of this belonged to that fortunate class which has come to be know r n as globetrotters, and while he was trotting across that part of the globe which men have mapped out as India he saw an instance of animal training and human pluck which he wishes to mention as worthy of comparison with the performance which created such a sensation here in New York. Of course he had often heard of the trained hunting leopards or cheetahs, as most people have who take any interest in the more exciting forms of the chase, but what he learned from personal observation as to how they were trained and broken was a real surprise. Perhaps, however, it is an error to speak of them being trained, for, in fact, they are not trained at all, and all that is done to them is to break them thoroughly and teach them absolute submission to their master’s will. The cheetah’s method of capturing his prey, which is almost always one of the smaller forms of deer, is to creep as near as possible to it and then with a bounding onset of extraordinary swiftness strike it down by leaping upon it. All this comes by instinct, but a cheetah caught before he learns to practice it in a state of freedom cannot be trained to accomplish it, and so they are never captured for hunting purposes until they are full grown. As a rule they are captured by entangling them in a mesh of sinews attached to the trees where they come to wet their claws and play. Once secured they are carried in a cart to the hunter’s house and there they are securely bound with thongs and ropes and undergo about as unpleasant an experience as any animal that is made to do service for man ever undergoes. He is fastened on top of a strong cot bedstead and starved almost to death, qft the same time being kept continually awake, The bed is placed so as to face the village street that he may grow used to the sight of men, and his owner and the rest of the family as well as any of their friends who may take an interest in the matter make pretended rushes at him with sticks and cloths, which they wave in his face. He is also scolded at continually by the women of the family, that being, sad to relate, considered by the unchivalrous men of India, the very best method of preventing anything from getting any rest, and under the influences of this combination of annoyances the poor cheetah becomes utterly and abjectly weak and tame. Then he is taken for a short walk, or rather a crawl, as by that time hd can

hardly drag ane leg after another. His walks are through the most crowded bazaars, and the people hoot at him and the dogs snarl at him, and he is generally given to understand that he is of no importance whatever. Now all this don’t take much pluck, but what follows does, for it is generally the case that when the cheetah is broken, and fed back to a state of robust health and hunting ability, he and his master sleep together in the same bed and that one blanket covers them both. Many of them are very [ large and savage, but they seem to [ thoroughly understand that any liberties they might take with their human bedfellow would result in a I renewal of their starvation and scolding by the ladies of the household and so they lie as quietly as a lamb might be expected to do. As they are generally' decorated with redtasselled caps that are fastened on with straps, and as they often sit up in bed with the sheet around their shoulders while their master is still dozing, the effect is supremely ridiculous, The only protection the man has is a little stick with a tassel of cords at its end, and if the cheetah grows very restless the tassel is dangled before its eyes and that soothes it back to quietude. Now and then one can find a man who sleeps with two or three cheetahs, but as a rule one is all that occupies his bed, and it is probable that all the boys who read this will agree that one is quite enough.—-[New York Mail and Express.