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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1936 HOW TO TAME A LION TAMER Marry Him!” Says Mrs. Clyde Beatty, Whose Hubby Is Terror of Jungle Cats, but Kitten Around House. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY G IRLS, what would you do if you woke up one of these spring mornings and discovered that you were in love with a lion tamer? With a guy who stares the King of Beasts right in the eye and makes him sit sulking in a corner like a disciplined schoolboy? Who wrestles hand-to-hand with a man-eating tiger and wins the decision? Who walks into a cage with thirty or forty as sorted jungle cats of both varieties twice a day and makes them do his bidding? Who even keeps a lion around the house to take care of the scraps ffom the dining table? * Don’t laugh. It might happen to YOU. This is spring. Spring Is the open season for romance. And^ spring is the season for the opening of the circus. It happened to a little Russlan-Amer- Ican girl just about three years ago. SHE fell in love with a Hon tamer, a Mon tamer who does all those unbe lievable things we were just talking about. And what did she do? She mar ried him. Follows Hobby’s Footsteps. She married Clyde Beatty, the lit tle, curly-headed fellow who is gen erally considered the greatest animal trainer of all time. For a couple of years she peeled po tatoes in their home at Rochester. Ind., where the circus spends the winter, while Clyde’s lion-around-the-house sat at her feet and roared for more table scraps. But like all good wives. Har riet knew that she must keep herself Interested in the things that appealed to her husband. And she did—with a vengeance. She became a lion tamer herself and now appears every day In the same circus with her husband. She Is today the only trainer In the world who “works” a lion, a tiger and an elephant in the same cage at the same time. The story of this remarkable pair is one of those romantic dramas under the big top that endow the circus with much of the glamor it still holds for millions, young and old, even in this fast-moving age. . The story really begins about six teen years ago in Chillicothe, Ohio. There was a circus playing In Chilli- good for a candy girl. Combined with her natural flair for dancing inher ited from Russian ancestors, 4 got her Into the circus ballet. Harriet Gets Up in World. From the ballet It wasn’t much of a Jump—figuratively speaking—to the flying trapeze, and Harriet accom- piished it, quaintly enough, with the greatest of ease. And then she fell. No, not from the trapeze (although she did that, too, once). She fell for the dapper little man who looked the bold, bad lions In the eye and made them wilt. Mr. Beatty looked the petite aerial artist in the eye—and HE wilted. The little giant whose leer could turn a jungle roar into petulant whimper just rolled over on his back and purred like a kitten. The daredevil with nerves of steel be came putty in the hands of a woman— THE woman. And now, girls, if your best boy friend happens to be a bookkeeper, a farmer, a clerk, a lawyer, a truck driver, a doctor or even a newspaper man, here is your chance to find out what a thrill It Is to be wooed by the world’S\ most courageous lion tamer. You have Harriet Beatty’s word for It first-hand. Imagine the Thrills, Girls t “What,” Mrs. Beatty was asked, *1s It like to be wooed by a lion tamer?” “Oo—oo—oo!” She girlishly giggled. “It ees very sweet 1” “How does a fearless, dominating 11 ii in mwm *8^ »: • ; itm mm mm w t :f < ^ mm sm Harriet Beatty is the only trainer ever in the same cage •• cothe, and its fanfare drew the atten- . tlon of a stripling youth of fifteen in the town of Bainbridge, a few miles away. It was a big day for the boy. It was also a big day for the circus, al though that was not proven for quite a few years. Clyde Beatty never went back to Bainbridge. He got a Job as a cage- boy for the polar bear act. He wus pretty small, but there was something In his eye, and they took him. Tames Dame Fortune. Two years later Clyde was working his own act—not with polar bears, but with the great cats who would kill a man with a single bite and do It will ingly. Over the years Clyde and his cats were to reach the heights — heights from which they have not yet de scended. In rapid succession came top billing In the Big Show, moving pic tures and. finally, ownership interest Id one of the tqajor circuses. Clyde Is now part ownes of the Cole Brothers circus. In which he and Mrs. Beatty pcrfoitn. - / f Jo Catch up Mgs Beatty’s part of the story runs: She was born in Chicago of Russian not too many years ago. Her name something you have to sneeze in Russian but in English it be came fust plain Harriet Evans. In 1930 the circuf was in town and advertised for girls to teh candy. Harriet needed a job. and the foiled up with the show. Like Beatty she nts/er left it. Harriet Is % tiny wisp of a thing. ; with deep-set, serious eyes betrayed by • smile that^eurls at tire corners. Per soft, deliC\ie. blonde beauty who u^et her. It was too - to work a lion, a tiger and an elephant at the same time. male like Clyde act during a court ship?” “Oo—oo—oo! He ees very sweet I” “Well. now that you are married, haven’t you found that a lion tamer is something of a terrible tyrant around the house?” “Oo-oo—oo/ He ees VERY sweet!” So now you know. When Clyde and Harriet were mar ried be insisted that she quit working. She did for a while. She didn’t like to be around when Clyde was risking his life with the cats, anyway. She was afraid of them. But she raised a cub. Leo, on a baby's bottle, and that oured her of a great deal of her fear. Leo Is a year and a half old now and, according to Harriet, ‘ ees very sweet,” but some of the Beattys’ house guests don’t think so. Leo is an affable sort for a Jungle beast, but he is as large as a small draft horse and likes to play. Women folks don’t warm up to him very easily. “He rips their stockings and that an noys them.” says Harriet. “And hla teeth are getting big now. When he bites you it hurts.” She Knows No Fear. Leo’s teeth are a couple of Inches long and about as dull as the business end of an Ice pick. But they can’t be very terrifying to a little lady who spends a few minutes every afternoon and evening now In a cage with a full- grown Hon, an lll-dispositioned tiger and a lumbering pachyderm, all natur al enemies. This is the new act which Harriet de vised and, with Clyde’s guiding hand to tutor her, works in the circus this year. She makes the great cats leap through hoops of flame to the elephant’s back and ride around the ring the best of friends. So adept a trainer is she, she has never yet hgd a "close call” in the cage. Such luck has not fallen to the lot of her husband. Clyde works as many as 43 assorted lions and tigers in the same cage at once. He makes them perch upon stools and assume all kinds m Leo, the Beattys' lion cub, is a great pal of “Daffy,” a dog in the circus. of positions and formations. Menelik, a new cat with the act this year, sits on his haunches and waves his paws around in the air like a prize fighter entering the ring. A tiger rolls over and over and then chases his tail at Clyde’s command. With such goings-on amid a horde of wild beasts, it is not an infrequent happening for one or two of the cats to rebel. Clyde’s closest shave came In win ter quarters when he was rehearsing his act preparatory to opening the 1933 season. Samson, one of the older and larger lions, attacked him and put him in the hospital, hovering between life and death for sixteen weeks. Had not a tiger then attacked the lion and di verted its attention, Clyde must have been a goner. Lion Kills Cage Boy. Samson, Incidentally, is one beast yoq would not like to be meeting same night down a dark alley. The writer personally saw him sink his teeth into the shoulder of another trainer, Allen King, one night, and King, too, would be a dead man today If a tiger had not come to his rescue. (It must not be supposed that the tiger In either case was trying to save the trainer’s life— he was merely after a nice, juicy bits of lion meat on tho hoof). Last winter Sammy succeeded in killing a cage boy Who carelessly left the “chute” door •pen while working. The two cats have a natural hatred for each other, and when this hatred works up to a certain pitch a fight sometimes results In the cage, with dis astrous results. In Muskegon. Michigan, last season a fight almost broke up the show and resulted in the death of a cat or two. Across the state in Bay Cty the season before a rumpus in cage caused a pistol In Beatty’s bolster to discharge, wounding him se verely in the leg. He went on with the ac^ however, and It was not until some time later that the slug was removed by a doctor. He loads his gun with nothing but blanks now. Clyde Beatty has never seen an Afri can jungle, but then Edgar Rice Bur roughs wrote the whole “Tarzan” se ries of savage jungle lore and he hasn’t seen one either. Clyde buys his cats from zoos «®nd animal dealers. He looks for lions and tigers with spirit, cats who will tight back when he en courages them. That's one of the rea sons that his every appearance In the cage is a nearly-mortal ordeal, one that leaves him soping wet with perspira tion and with nerves so unstrung that he will talk to no one. even his wife for 20 minutes after the act. Prefera Cats to Cameras. Even so. Clyde says he Is more afraid of Hollywood than his cage of cats. He has made three pictures. “The Big Cige” “The Lost Jungle” and “Darkest Africa.” The latter is a thrill er serial which he completed this win ter, and It’s Hollywood at Its daffiest. It’s full of Bat Men, wild hairbreadth escapes, volcanic eruptions and heroic feats. In making the picture, Clyde was badly bruised by some of the Bat Men, did not succeed in effecting a couple of the hairbreadth escapes, was rath er painfully blown up in one of the synthetic volcanoes and had to rest up for a week after performing the final heroic feat. The last named Incident occurred when the director casually asked Clyde If he would mind "rassling” a tiger bare handed, on the plea that It would be “sure-fire picture stuff.” Clyde was finally talked into It. but only on con dition that the match take place after the rest of the picture was finished, so there would still he a picture, even if there was not any more Beatty. The match was long and furious and Clyde got pushed around plenty before winning the deciding fall, "Pretty good.” conceded the director, “pretty good. Now let’s try It just once more with a little more of the old pep 1” Clyde’s repjy hns been deleted so that this newspaper can be sent through the*Unlted States malls. Oo—oo—dol It ees not very sweet) © ^p*t«rn Newspaper Vnloa. ADVENTURERS’ CLUB “The Servant Problem' 9 By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. S TEP up and meet Frances Walton—Mrs. F. R. Walton of New York city. Frances has come to tell us an adventure yarn—the story of how she ran into the servant problem. Only don’t make any mistake about that problem of hers. It wasn’t how to keep a servant. It was a totally different sort of problem that had more to do with her own safety than it had with getting her housework done for her. It happened in the fall—housecleaning time. Frances was living in a house at 25 East Eleventh street, and the window’s needed washing. It was the year 1919, and help was hard to get. She didn’t know anybody she wanted to give the job to, so she asked a bellhop in a nearby hotel if he had any friends who wanted to earn a few dollars. The bellhop said he knew just the man for the job. He promised to send him around early the next morning. And sure enough, along about half past eight, a man came to the door and said he was the win dow washer Frances had asked for. Frances put him to work on the windows, and that bird sure w - as a hustler. He did so well that day, that Frances told him to come back the next, to do some other jobs that needed doing. But the next day, that bird didn’t show up till about half past eleven. And w - hen he did come, he brought Old Lady Ad venture with him. Window Washer Turns Out to Be a Thug. The first thing Frances knew of his arrival was when he came to her room on tfie second floor. The maid had let him in. He told Frances that the water was running in one of the laundry tubs in the cellar and he couldn’t shut it off. It was a common enough complaint, and Frances didn’t suspect anything. She started down toward the cellar with him, but the minute they reached the foot of the basement stairs, the man grabbed both her arms. “Keep quiet,” he said, “and you won’t be hurt.” A chill shot along Frances’ spine. From the back of the cellar another man appeared—a small, rat-faced man with a clothesline-in his hands. Another man came from somewhere behind her and put his hands over her eyes so she couldn’t see him. The three men tied her hands behind her back and led her down the steps to the cellar. There they tied her feet. Frances Is Bound While Robber Gang Ransacks House. When they had tied her feet, they started to gag her. One of them wanted to stick a wad of rolled-up newspaper in her mouth, but Frances begged him not to. She was short of breath, and that wad might have killed her. The man i - mi Till . The Ruffians Overpowered and Tied Her Up. went out and got a pillow slip, tore It into strips, and put one of thefti over he» mouth. Another, he tied across her eyes. Then they put her on the floor against the wall and one man—the one who didn’t w - ant to be seen—w - as left there to watch her. Ail this time, fear was growing in Frances’ heart. What were those men up to? Did they intend to kill her? Frances didn't honestly think so. Still, you never can tell what is liable to happen to you when you fall into the hands of ruthless men such as these seemed to be. She leaned back against the wall, her heart pounding violently, and waited to see what would happen. Meanwhile, the other two men had gone upstairs and were gathering to gether all the valuables they could find. The maid asked one of them where Frances was, and he told her she had gone out. He also told her that Frances had left word that she was to clean up the top floor—and the maid, suspecting nothing, went upstairs, leaving them free to ransack the lower floors at their leisure. Frances Keeps Her Wits; Makes Guard Uneasy. But now, let’s get back to Frances, down there in the cellar, watched by the third bandit. After 15 minutes or so, she found that the bandage over her mouth w-as loose. By shaking her head from side to side, she managed to work it off, and then she told the man who w’as watching her that a man who lived in the house w r as coming back at 12 o’clock. It was almost noon by that time, and the bandit began to get uneasy. After a few minutes, he got up and went out. About five minutes passed after that. Then Frances heard footsteps up stairs. The bandits were leaving the house. Frances waited until they had gone and the door was closed behind them. Then she began calling to the maid. Thieves Are Caught, but Valuables Never Recovered. She had to call several times before the maid heard her. Then she heard her footsteps in the kitchen, and on the cellar stairs. But that maid wasn’t much help. She was so frightened that her fingers trembled and she couldn’t untie the knots in the ropes. Frances told her to go outside and see if she could find a policeman. The maid came back in a few minutea and said she couldn’t find a policeman. By that time, the maid was more excited than Frances. Frances sent her next door to get a man to untie the ropes, and so, at last, she got out of her predicament. Then she called the police. The three men were all caught and sent to prison. But none of Frances’ valuables—and many of them wrere heirlooms—were ever recovered. ©—WNU Service. West Ireland Has Wealth That Has Brought Fame All West Ireland is rich In literary associations. Just off the coast, across the mouth of Galway, bay, lie the Aran Islands, where John M. Synge went to live after he had decided to write plays of Irish peasant life. They are among the last homes of Gaelic In Ireland, and long before travelers came to see the fascinating native life on them, scholars had come there from all Europe to study that lan guage, according to a writer in the Los Angeles Times. Sj r nge told of the life of the Aran fishermen In his “Riders to the Sea,” and many times acknowledged his debt to Irish peasants such as these. One of the most conspicuous fea tures of the Islands is the great slabs of limestone on them, which in some places tower up a thousand feet. Be- cagse the surface of the stone is so slippery, the islanders ail wear a soft rawhide moccasin, held together with thongs, and In place of rowboats they get about in “currnghs,” light canoes of wickerwork. These are covered with canvas, and ride over the waves of the Atlantic like chips on *ts back. Frail as curraghs appear, th® Islanders often transport domestic animals from one island to another In them. North of the islands is Sligo, where William Butler Yeats was bom. Sligo is built on a wide bay with many In lets, and across from it Is Knocknarea, where “the host Is riding.” On Benbulbin, the chief mountain of the section, died Dlarmuid, with whom Grania fled from Tara, Jilting her oth er suitor, the giant Finn MacCool. La ter when MacCool came asking hospi tality, Grana persuaded Dlarmuid to give it. He and Finn went hunting to gether, and on Benbulbin he met his death through Finn’s spells. MacCool then went off with Grania, who be came his queen. City’s Tenants Total 1,354,295 The total number of rent payers in New York city Is reported at 1,354,295 fam- Hies—or 78 per cent of the population. Of this number 55,268 families living In Manhattan paid less than $20 monthly—and In the Greater city, rep resenting all boroughs, a total of 85,- 020 families come under this classifl cation. Oldest Temple-Fort Found by Explorers in the Orient A prehistoric architect’s conceit tlon of a combined citadel and tem ple of worship, antedating by nearly three centuries the earliest biblical reference to temple fortresses, has been uncovered by archeologists at Tepe Gawra, in northern Mesopo tamia, It was announced at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania. The discov ery and excavation of the massive walled “round house,” a circular building of sun brick unique among all prehistoric finds, climaxed the seventh season of work at the “Great Mound” 15 miles northeast of Mosul by a joint expedition of the univer sity museum and the American Schools of Oriental Research. ROLL DEVELOPED 8 Never-fade Velor Prints ONE ENLARGEMENT JACK RABBIT CO. 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