Adventures in Many Lands

newspaper, and some of my experiences as a rep

of his life. For this reason he is paid well, but a nervous reporter often goes out of the office with his heart

rdly reached my desk when the news editor-a kind man, who was always giving me opportuniti

nment for you this

d up gr

oter, don't you?" he asked.

managed

in the quick, nervous American

said, wondering w

acked and mauled a valuable horse there, and I understand is still at bay. That's all I know. Get up there as quick as you like, and get us a regular blazing story of it. You can run to

ry questions, but many a reporter did a lot of steady thinkin

ed out of the room with my nose in the air, as though hunting escaped lions was a li

the East River, and is a mile or two in length, and full of stables. Not far from the corner of Irving Place, however, I got on to the scent of my quarry, and I had hardly joi

" I asked of a man a

he road. "Escaped from the circus. Savage as they make 'em. Killed a trottin

red in an instant in all directions. There was no doubt about that sound: it was a genui

quick about it, too, for my copy had to be written out and in the office of the Evening Smil

om the stable doors. They moved about a bit when the roars came, but none of them ran, and I noticed some of them had pistols in their hands, and so

ewspaper story this time. Old Yellow Hair's in there, sure pop! And,

w," said another. "He was maul

a third, meaning the lion. "He's the best anim

n a fourth. "There's no f

didn't like the job at all. He wanted us to go off and concoct a "fake story." But I wouldn't agree to this, and it fell through;

esented. It was a first-class news story, and the men who were paid by space were already working hard to improve its value by getting new details, such as the animal's his

efore ten minutes had passed some one arrived with a ladder, and the string of unwilling reporters was soon seen climbing u

se the wonderful story and throw it down to him. The reporter on an evening paper in New York has to write his "stuff," as we called it, in wonderful and terrible place

t. Overhead were thick rafters. I think every one of us noticed these before he noticed anything else, for the instant the roar of that lion sounded up through the boards under our feet the reporters

g papers, shabby fellows from the gutter press, hats flying, papers fluttering; and in less than a second aft

boards under our feet. But the first time at such close quarters, with only a shaky wooden roof between us and "old Yellow Ha

es got a little accustomed to the gloom the outline of the stalls became first visible. Then a human figure seated on the top of an old refrigerator, with a pistol in one hand, pointed at a corner opposite, came into view. Then another man, seated astride th

to bend and shake, a number of these adventurous news-gatherers remained aloft and never put foot to ground. Braver reporters threw their copy out of the door to the messenger-boys below, and every time this feat was accomplished the crowd, safely watching on the corners opposite, cheered and cla

but more often got a pistol-shot instead of a voice by way of reply. Where all those bullets went to was a matter for anxious speculation amongst us, and

momentarily as the neighbourhood awoke to the situa

. "The strong man of the circus. He'll fix

king his way through the crowd, asking questions as he went. A pathway opened up for him as if by

to give forth a most terrifying roar, with the immediate result that the men holding the ladder turned tail with one accord and fled. The ladder slipped a few inches, and the ascending Samson, crowbar and all, very ne

dangling, and a second later had dropped heavily into a pile of hay underneath him. We lowered the crowbar to him, breathless with admiration; and then a strange thing happened. For, while the lion roared and the pistols banged, and we reporters

the fight," said a reporter. "M

uch a hoolabaloo as we then heard is simply indescribable-shooting, lion roaring, strong

hed! Every minute they expected to see the doors burst open and the enraged animal rush out wit

rs when the trap-door shot back in the floor, and a voice

o the street just in time to see the great doors open and a procession emerg

who had sat on the division between the stalls. Then came a great iron cage, which had been in the stab

lion, panting, on its side, with l

ide of his head, was the proud figure of the victorious strong man. The expression on his face was worth painting, but it is whol

ught him his hard-won victory stood upright on one end, grasped in his gigantic hand. He smiled round on the gathering crowd, and the

per-boys shouting the news and waving sheets of terrible and alarming headlines about the "escaped lion

and in particularly bold type the public were told to be sure and see Yellow Hair, the savage man-eating lion, that had escaped the day before and killed a valuable horse in a private stable where it h

nt a circus ever had; and m

queried the news editor next morning

merican paper, and I stared

agged in a dead horse in the night. You wrote