Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1914 — Side Show Sidelights [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Side Show Sidelights

Diverting Chronicles of Circus Life

By FRANCIS METCALFE

(Coßvrisfat by W. G. Chapman)

THE HYPNOTIC BEAR.

The doctor shook his head as he flipped his ophthalmoscope into his ipocket, and Rey, the trainer, who had Ibeen holding the bear’s head still 'while the oculist made the examine* Ition, opened the door of the cage for (him. The bear —a medium-sized black animal—wandered aimlessly abcut, ■tumbling over the water pan and knocking its head against the bars, its eyes, which were evidently sightless, shining like two fiery opals as they reflected the electric light. "I am sorry to ten you that it is a hopeless case,” said the physician to the proprietor, who was standing with the stranger in front of the cage watching the examination. “Both optic nerves are atrophied, and the anlimal must have received some serious (injury, possibly a heavy blow on the (forehead.** The proprietor, who has the reputation of being a “good loser,** thanked him and gave some directions to the trainer about the care of the 'animal before leading the way to the 'table in front of the Arena, where the Ipress agent was waiting for them. “It is rather unusual to call the most famous specialist in the country to examine a menagerie animal,” he said, after the doctor hurriedly left “But I was willing to pay anything In reason to restore the sight of this particular specimen, so I sent for the best-known oculist in New York. The (decision which he has just given will (probably mean a loss of thousands of 'dollars to me, but that is one of the risks which I have to assume. Would It interest you to hear a rather unusual romance of the menagerie busiincss?” The stranger gave eager assent, and the press agent settled himself comfortably and lighted a cigar. “You have no idea how many animals are offered to the owner of a menagerie and from what unusual sources the offers come,” said the proprietor. “Travelers in far countries bring back strange animals as I pets or curiosities; people buy young (wild animals which get beyond control when they mature and become veritable white elephants on their hands, land their owners have to dispose of them. I have had everything from monkeys to lions brought to me, and so it did not surprise me when an artist came to the hippodrome in Paris last winter and asked me if I didn’t want to purchase a bear. He seemed anxious for me to see it immediately, and at his earnest solicitation I got in a cab with him and drove to hia

studio, which was situated on the far side of the Seine. The bear which you .saw examined tonight was in a small room adjoining the studio, chained to is ring in the wall. “The apartment was luxuriously furnished, and I realized that it was not lack of ready money which made the artist so anxious to dispose of the brute; but he seemed in a desperate hurry to have me take it away, and offered It for such a low price that il closed the bargain at once. I suggested sending one of my men for it in the evening, but he insisted upon my taking it with me, and as the bear •was evidently as gentle as a kitten I called a closed cab and drove away 'with it The bear sat comfortably on the seat beside me and gave no trouble, but as we drove along I got to i thinking the matter over and the whole proceeding seemed a little strange. I had Mephisto, as the bear was named, put in a cage well away from the other animals—a sort of quarantine precaution which I always take with new arrivals—and as there was apparently nothing unusual about him eve him little attention, there being r the moment no group of animals training for which he would be available. I soon noticed that during the intermissions, when the audience [wandered about and examined the anJmals in the cages, there was always a tarowd of women about Ms den; but I (thought that it was because he was Much an inveterate beggar, and had > habit of standing at the ban with ihis mouth wide open, waiting for some one to flick a lump of sugar into it “The bear had given us no trouble,

about him; he seemed to have an aversion to cats. The bodies of three of them had been found in front of his cage, although we had never seen one killed. The cats about a menagerie instinctively keep out of harm’s way, and it puzzled me to know how Mephisto had managed to get them within reach of his heavy paw. Jack Bonavita, who fusses about his lions at all hours of the day and night, solved that mystery and incidentally saved his pet cat, Tramp, from an untimely ending. Tramp has been with Jack for years and appreciates the folly of venturing within reach of the animals in the cages, but Bonavita came across him in front of Mephisto’s cage in the middle of the night The bear was absolutely quiet, lying with its head on its paws and its eyes, which glistened like two points of flame, fixed on the cat Tramp was staring at it in turn and slowly drawing nearer to the cage, apparently struggling against some influence which was stronger than its will. Bonavita watched them for a few minutes, but before the cat ventured within striking distance hepicked It up and carried it away, while Mephisto, growling with rage, tried to break through the stout bars and get at it

“Two days before we were to sail for America I was sitting at my desk arranging some of the last details of shipment, when the door burst open and a well-dressed, handsome woman rushed in, followed by the artist who had sold me the bear. She was in a tearing rage and jabbering excitedly in a language which I did not understand, while the artist was trying to quiet her. She pushed him aside, and opening a purse which was well stuffed with banknotes, she asked in French, which she spoke with a marked foreign accent, for how much I would sell Mephisto. The artist protested, but she turned on him and gave him a tongue lashing of which I could guess the meaning, although the words were unintelligible to me. I couldn’t grasp the situation, but the strange hypnotic power which the

bear apparently exercised over cats had excited my curiosity, and I wished to investigate it at my leisure, so I politely but positively refused to name a price, and told her the animal was not for sale. The artist seemed relieved and she was very much disappointed, but she quieted down and asked me what I intended to do with the animal. I told her that I was taking it to America, where It would be put in a mixed group which Rey was to

train, and after Inquiring when we were to sail, they left the office. “I regretted that I had not taken the opportunity to find out something about the history of the animal, and looked over the audience to try to locate the couple, but they had left the building. One of the keepers told me that she had screamed when she recognized the bear and called it by name. She was trying to bribe him to let her go into the cage when the artist came up and expostulated with her, and they had an awful row before coming to my office. I heard nothing more from them and we shipped the animals at Havre the following day. The traveling dens were placed in the ’tween decks, which is not a pleasant place to be when the ship is tossing about, and I was surprised the second day out to find the woman who had tried to purchase Mephisto standing in front of his cage in that smelly place, talking to the bear as if it were a child. She laughed when I came up to her, and told me that as I would not part with the bear I would have to take her with the show. I, too, laughed, for I have a large family of daughters, and I knew that the simple traveling gown which she wore had cost more than two months* salary of my best trainer, but to my great surprise she was in dead earnest, and asked me seriously if I would not let her train a group of animals.” The press agent grew very attentive, but the proprietor told him that he was not talking for publication* and that a name which occupied several pages of the Almanack de Gotha was

“And she does carry that name and was born to it” he continued, “but I can’t tell you what it is. She didn’t tell it to me and it was not on the passenger Het but the ambassador from a great European nation came on from Washington to see her and remonstrate with her and to influence me to exclude her from the show. I wouldn’t consent to that, but I am afraid that the accident of the bear’s going blind will be the cause of my losing an act which promised to be sensational.” “You have kept it quiet enough,” said the press agent with a trace of resentment in his voice.

“As I told you, there are reasons why I can’t exploit it,” answered the proprietor. “I am counting upon it for my opening sensation at the Paris hippodrome next winter, and I don’t intend to discount it before a Coney Island audience. But to get back to my experience with her on the steamer. I found that she occupied the most expensive deck stateroom, and had a maid and a man servant traveling with her; so that I refused all of her renewed offers for the bear when I found the powerful fascination it had for her, and I finally consented to let her try the experiment of working with a group of animals. You know the class from which trainers are usually recruited, and you can imagine the Interest I take in a woman who possesses an. absolute fearlessness which is inherited from generations of ancestors who have never shown the white feather, in addition to education and intelligence. The only thing which puzzled me was her motive, and that I have not discovered yet, although the ambassador, who had received all sorts of communications about her from his own government, told me her history. It seems that she has always been noted for her eccentricity and her rebellion against the strict laws of convention which were supposed to control her life, and this is not the first time she has defied them. She had commissioned the artist —who, by the way, is one of the most celebrated men in Paris —to paint a portrait of her. At the same time he was painting an exhibition picture to be called the ’Dancing Bear,* and had purchased Mephisto for a model. The picture was to represent the bear dancing on Its hind legs opposite a woman, to the music of a flageolet played by a man bear leader —such an exhibition as is commonly given at the country fairs throughout Europe. He had no difficulty in getting a male model, but he was in despair about the woman dancer. He tried model after model, and although they started In all right each one became so nervous after a sitting or two that they refused to continue. The bear was chained to the wall and they were posed safely out of reach, but each of them asserted that the animal was like a serpent and trying to charm them so that they would come close enough to be caught. They were all afraid that they might yield to the fascination and be seriously injured. Tramp, the cat, would probably have told the same story if he had been able to talk.

“He mentioned the latter during one of the sittings for the portrait, and the lady, being curious to see the animal, came to his studio — and then the trouble commenced. She developed a most unaccountable attachment for Mephisto, and he was as gentle as a lamb with her. They would sit facing each other by the hour, and the artist swore they talked to each other and understood each other perfectly. The animal never attempted to harm her, but the'artist became alarmed for fear there should be an accident, and believing that there was something uncanny about the brute, he decided to get rid of it and sold it to me.

••Well, I watched her with the bear on shipboard and since we landed, and I can’t yet understand her control over It for It does not control her in any way. There seems to be a sympathy between them which makes them absolutely understand each other, . and through it she understands the other caged beasts. The act which I had framed for her when I found that she was absolutely in earnest was a dance to be given In the midst of a group of adult lions. The lady is absolutely fearless and approved the plan, but stipulated that she should select the lions.

“For the past , three days she has been anxious and uneasy about the bear and has insisted that it was rapidly going blind. She says that the bear is her teacher about things in the animal world, and that she can tell what it is thinking about Its eyes look perfectly sound, and it is only for two days that we have noticed anything wrong with it Mephisto knew its way about its old cage so well that it gave no evidence of blindness, and a bear is naturally clumsy in its movements, but when we moved it to a strange den it stumbled over everything. I experimented by bringing Tramp in front of its cage, but with the loss of sight the hypnotic power has apparently deserted it, and the cat paid no attention to it Finally I called in the doctor and you heard him pronounce his verdict” “How do you account for it all—her infatuation for the bear and her intuitive knowledge of the dispositions of the lionsT’ asked the stranger.

“I don’t try to account for anything. It is one of the thousand things about animals and the million things about women which no mere man can understand,” replied the proprietor, laughing. “I have simply given you the facts of the situation and you can draw your own conclusions, but the bear’s blindness upsets my plans and possibly prevents a sensation in circles which approach royalty!”

They Would Sit Facing Each Other by the Hour.