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The Lion-Tamer’s Job.

One Who Has Been Bitten Forty-Seven Times During His Dangerous Career.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of immunity from bites,” said a lion tamer recently to a New York Telegraphman. “Although my lions do not often catch me, they do with a frequencey sufficient for all practical purposes. Within three months I have been bitten twice on the leg and once on my right arm. Altogether in my career I have been bitten something like 47 times. But lion tamers get used to such little things.
“The most serious accident I ever experienced was when I was bitten almost through the right thigh. With good treatment I soon recovered. There is no better remedy for an animal bite than lukewarm water and plenty of salt, and by using them I have invariably escaped blood poisoning. I am always armed when I enter a cage, though my audience may not know this, and on five occasions when the lions became maddened and I saw death staring me in the face I have had to shoot to kill.
“I have found the Asiatic lion the easiest to tame and the safest to handle. The Nubian lion is more treacherous then a tiger and when he bites he takes a big piece. Males are easier to tame then are the females, and cubs are not as easily managed as is generally believed.”

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