McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, April 30, 1936, Image 3
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
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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.
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How Louisiana M as Named
Louisiana wan named after King
Louis XIV of France.
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Gold coins contain alloy becauso
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Mother Advised Daughter
To Take CARDUI
Many, many women have taken
Cardui on the advice of their moth
ers who had been helped by it. ”1
would have severe cramping spells,”
writes Mrs. F. C. Allen, of Smithdaie,
Miss. “I would get nauseated, and
feel faint and would have to go to
bed. I would be very nervous for
two or three days. I was afraid to go
awajr from home* for fear I would faint
and falL My mother, having used Cardui
with good results, advised me to try it* I
am so glad I took Cardui and got relief,
for it has done wonders for me.”
Of course, if Cardui does not benefit
YOU, consult a physician.
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