Word: cage
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...what he caught was enough to startle even that grizzled veteran of two wars. "I thought," he said, "I was in the wilds of Borneo. I saw nothing like this one in India." The quarry was a huge and ferocious cat whose writhing body "nearly filled the two-foot cage...
Courage in a Cage. With such unwonted ferocity on the march north of the Channel, it was perhaps a bad week for self-styled Animal Trainer Karl Steinmann to prove his courage in Paris. He had come to France from Vienna last June and signed up as a dompteur or wild animal tamer with Pinder's traveling circus. He was fired after his first appearance, when an elephant which he was supposed to lead around the ring refused to budge. Steinmann took his problem to a Paris lawyer who in turn took it to court. "To say," roared Lawyer...
...court listened attentively, and agreed to let Steinmann enter a cage of lions, tigers or black panthers("Panthers," said Lawyer Valensi, "are the most ill-tempered beasts"), and prove his courage...
Justice in Time. Paris' famed Cirque d'Hiver was persuaded to lend its ring and five lions-Pasha, Prince, Romeo, Pigalle and Hamed-for the legal demonstration. "Never turn your back on Prince," admonished Circus Manager Alexandre Bouglione as Steinmann prepared to enter the cage. A breathless girl in black rushed up to wish the trainer bonne chance. "This," shouted the lawyer for the defense, "is all irrelevant," but nobody paid any attention. A court bailiff pulled a green dossier from his overcoat pocket and settled down to take notes...
Steinmann entered the cage in awful silence. He tripped and quickly saved himself. The lions snarled, but none of them moved from the tight phalanx they had formed in the cage's center. Finally one jumped on a pedestal. "Bravo!" shouted Lawyer Valensi. Two minutes later another lion lazily climbed onto his pedestal. "Fini," cried Circus Master Bouglione. "Get him out of there. He doesn't know what he's doing. He'll make a buffet lunch for those lions...