there must
have been laudanum in it, for they had to work over him the rest of the
night to save him.

[Illustration: _"All of his savage instincts were aroused."_]

"He would walk the deck with the lady passengers, who made a great deal
of him, and when the customary concert was given, nothing would do but
that he must perform and then pass the plate for the collection. He was
in evening dress and behaved like a perfect gentleman, and the
collection was a large one. It was heaped on the plate, and he was just
about to present it to the captain when Booker Washington stepped
forward to make a contribution. The money for the Seaman's Home went
flying to the four corners of the salon and the trainer had a difficult
time in persuading Consul to retire without tearing the clothes off of
the man whose only offense was his color. This was Consul's last voyage,
for he contracted pleurisy and died in Berlin, and I felt worse over his
death than I did over the burning of my whole menagerie in Baltimore a
few years ago."

"Have you found that early association with human beings makes the other
animals easier to train?" asked the Stranger, and the Proprietor shook
his head.

"No; I would rather train one taken in the jungle than an animal born in
captivity. They do raise the pumas in South America and have them about
the houses as we do cats; but I wouldn't trust one of 'em. And as for
the bigger cats, the lions and tigers, there is no such thing as taming
them. They may be trained to do certain things, but they are never
trustworthy. We had a queer illustration of that when I was traveling
with a caravan circus in France. One of the lionesses had a litter of
three cubs, and in the excitement of the moving and strange
surroundings, she killed two of them. We took the other one away and the
woman who cooked for us volunteered to raise it. She became very much
attached to it and developed the theory that she could overcome its
savage instincts by diet, and for a time it looked as if she were right.
The beast was with her for about two years and grew to a fine animal,
but she never let him taste raw food. One day, when he was comfortably
lying before the stove, she pushed him with her foot to get him out of
the way and he resented it. Whether it was that alone, or whether the
odor of meat which she was about to cook appealed to him, I don't know;
but all of his savage instincts were aroused and when we secured him we
found that