nd inquire into things, the
whole force of compositors all at once felt as if they ought to
go suddenly down stairs and give the animal a chance. With that
mysterious instinct which distinguishes dumb animals, and which goes
far to prove that they have souls, the tiger went at once for the
door of the major's sanctum, and it broke in just as Slott was in the
middle of a tearing editorial upon "Our Tendencies toward Caesarism."
The major, however, did not hesitate to knock off. He stopped at once,
and emerged with a fine, airy grace through the window, bringing the
sash with him; and then he climbed up the water-spout to the roof,
where he sat until a hook-and-ladder company came and took him off.
_The Patriot_ did not issue for a week; for although the major
bombarded the tiger with shot-guns pointed through the windows, and
although the fire-engine squirted hot water at him, the brute got
along very comfortably until Saturday night, when he tried to swallow
a composing-stick and choked to death. When they entered the room,
they found that the animal had upset all the type and had soaked
himself in ink and then rolled over nearly every square inch of the
floor, while the major's leader on "Caesarism" was saturated with water
and perforated with shot-holes. After this circus advertisements in
_The Patriot_ will be paid for in advance.

[Illustration: MAJOR SLOTT'S TIGER]

In one of the issues of his paper, just after the trouble with the
tiger, the major offered some reflections upon the general subject
of "Tigers," in which he gave evidence that he had recovered his
good-humor to some extent. He said,

"We have read with very deep interest a description of how Van Amburgh
used to obtain control over tigers and other wild beasts. All he did
was to mesmerize them two or three times, and they soon recognized his
power and obeyed him. The thing seems simple and easy enough, now that
we understand it, and we have a mysterious impression that we could
walk out into a jungle and subdue the first tiger we met by making
a few passes at him with our hands. But we are not anxious to do
this--for one reason, because the Indian jungles are so far away, and
for another, because we do not want to hurt an innocent tiger. If we
have to meddle with such animals, we always prefer to operate with
those that are stuffed. Show us a tiger with sawdust bowels, and
we will stand in front of him and make mesmeric motions for a week
without t