A Carpathian Bear Killed by One Blow from a Lions Paw at Wombwell's Show.
Last night Wombwell's menagerie. at the corner of Howard avenue and Lee circle, was crowded with visitors to witness the many attractions. Though the weather was better cold outside, inside the big tent things were so snugly arranged mat everyone was comfortable. The big crowd enjoyed the different amusements offered, but had they remained a while longer they would have witnessed something that was not on the regular programme a fight between the giant lion Nero and a big black Carpathian bear. weighing about 950 pounds. There were a small number of spectators on hand. however, watching the animals being fed with raw meat, and they saw the encounter between these two ferocious beasts.
They were in a cage together, with a partition separating them. The partition had become worn, and it was intended that this morning it be repaired. Greats chunks of meat were thrown the two animals. The lion, with his mass pounds of muscle and" bone, 1 1." u iuc utui , luici ui? titiier nmsneu hist. Then he glanced sullenly over through the Pars at the lion and bear, h Inline to get to him. Sure enough the partition broke. and in a moment the two animals were locked in a regular dim I'ov.-j 'death embrace." Cart. Maitland, Ui.-uta'jer of tne sbo. savs that the: fight was of very short duration. however, and in that time he saw cxemrtiined the marvelous strength with which the naturalists accredit lions.
The bear fought and bit the lion for a few seconds, scratching his face to some extent and biting a small piece out of his paw. They swayed backward and forward for a while, when suddenly the lion drew back his tremendous paw' and dealt the bear a blow across the back that resounded all over the circus enclosure. It landed squarely on the bear's back breaking the spinal column as If It were a twig. the bear fell back dead, and the monarch of the forest. after sniffing at the dead carcass, walked back to where he had been eating and Irinrr alown facing the dead bear resumed his crunching on the meat before him. Capt, Maitland says. that he never before had any idea of the immense strength in the paw of a lion. The blow he hit the bear was of such force that the. spinal column hardly offered resistance to it. It was like the force of a battering ram 'be- tnnri a alT'tl-tnr4i nrAaani. n ...n, T,a bear was making every effort to chew up his lordly antagonist just before he was struck, while the lii did not nse h's tfsTU at all.
The Times-Democrat from New Orleans, Louisiana · Page 7
