This is a job that is not as popular as it used to be, isn’t it. Lion tamer. People these days want to see happy lions on the telly, eating a less than happy antelope, not a whip brandishing lion tamer with a group of cowed big cats.
Launceston Examiner 17 Feb 1894 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39499710
I wonder how long the lions in this article were plotting the demise of their tamer, Thieman? They obviously jumped at the chance to have a go at him when the lights went out.
Being stuck in the dark on the wrong side of the bars with a group of excited predators you had recently forced to do tricks would probably be a lion tamers worst nightmare.
I love the way they have used the term ‘worried’ in this article. We know what it means when a dog worries at something but when we hear that word the idea of concern or anxiety springs immediately to mind. The title of this article ’A Lion Tamer Worried’ is probably exactly what he felt in those first seconds, just before the real worrying began….
It seems cats have a memory as long as elephants then. I know my wife upset our cat this weekend with a new enclosed litter tray. Rather than use it as it looks like a per carrier and may be reminiscent of vet trips, he went on piddled in her slippers instead. Not the first time he’s used this method of showing his displeasure. Much better than a ‘worrying’ and I bet poor Thieman would have settled for that.
Oooh, that Oscar knows how to get his point across. Is it safe to assume that the new litter tray has been retired and that the old one has been reinstated? Or is Lady J just going to do without slippers for the foreseeable future?
Sounds like Thieman didn’t stay worried long!
Not long at all! I love the bit where the article says “the lions, who were very much excited”, I bet they were! Not too often circus lions get dinner ‘on the hoof’
I loved the understated reporting style, wouldn’t want readers becoming “worried” or “excited” by this snippet of news.
It certainly was understated. I think if I had been reporting on this incident the lions wouldn’t have been ‘worrying’ him, I would have used the far clearer term, ‘mauled’…..
-giggles- I know I shouldn’t laugh because the poor man died but the tone of the article is so… tongue in cheek? I can’t help wondering if the journalist was secretly on the side of the lions.
I wonder how lion tamers were regarded back then. If you admitted to that as a job now I bet you would be immediately harangued by a stickynose stranger claiming to be an animal lover and telling you how evil you were. Did they have a romantic reputation back then or were they just another animal act?
There did seem to ba a lot of them around though, I have another lion tamer article for later in the week that will probably give you a laugh too
I remember thinking that lion tamers were terribly romantic… but I was a kid at the time. Looking forward to lion tamer part 2.
I remember variety shows on TV with lion tamers or other big cat acts. Funny but I never thought about cracking a whip in the direction of our house cat. She was a gorgeous long-haired stray — all white with green eyes — that we named Smitty (as in Smitty the Kitty). We were kids.
I think that the average house cat would not even bother to retaliate if you cracked a whip at them, they would just give you that disdainful look and walk away. No submission whatsoever….