A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (6 page)

The poor boy was raised up by Stewart, the police officer, in a state of great suffering with two severe lacerated wounds on the arm and right side of the face, and it was quite a miracle he was not torn to pieces. The teeth of the animal passed completely through the right arm.

A cab was procured, in which the wounded boy was conveyed to the London Hospital, where Mr Forbes, the house surgeon, rendered every assistance. The boy was in a very low state from loss of blood from the wounds, and last evening, at seven o’clock, he was in a very precarious condition, both from the injuries and shock to the system through fright.

At the time of the escape of the animal the tradespeople in the neighbourhood closed their shops, and remained in a state of fear and anxiety for nearly half an hour afterwards.

It seems that Mr Jamrach is an extensive importer and exporter of all kinds of wild beasts and foreign birds, which he forwards to all parts of the world for menageries and private collections.

The Standard
, London, October 27, 1857

Extraordinary Fight

Our readers doubtless noticed, a few days back, an account of a tiger which escaped from a cattle truck in Ratcliff Highway, London, and which, after running along the centre of the road for some distance, was caught by his keepers while in the act of tearing a lad who unfortunately crossed the animal’s path.

The tiger was the property of Mr Jamrach, and he sold it a day or two afterwards to Mr Edmonds, the successor of Wombwell, for his well-known travelling menagerie, which it joined on Monday at West Bromwich. It was placed in one of the ordinary carriages, of two compartments, the adjoining den being occupied by a very fine lion, six or seven years old, for which Mr Edmonds gave £300 three years ago.

The attendants had all left the menagerie to go to breakfast, when suddenly those in the carriage which the proprietors occupy were alarmed by an unusual outcry among the beasts. They soon discovered the cause. The newly-bought tiger had burglariously broken through the ‘slide’ or partition dividing his den from that of the lion, and had the latter in his terrible grasp.

The combat which ensued was a terrific one. The lion acted chiefly on the defensive, and having probably been considerably tamed by his three years’ confinement the tiger had the advantage. His attacks were of the most ferocious kind. The lion’s mane saved his head and neck from being much injured, but the savage assailant at last succeeded in ripping up his belly, and then the poor animal was at the tiger’s mercy. The lion was dead in a few minutes.

The scene was a fearful one. The inmates of every den seemed to be excited by the conflict, and their roaring and howling might have been heard a quarter of a mile distant. Of course Mr Edmonds and his men could not interfere while the conflict lasted, but when the tiger’s fury had subsided they managed to remove the carcase.

He must have used his paws as a sort of battering ram against the partition, as it was pushed in rather than torn down. He cost Mr Edmonds £400.

The Isle of Wight Observer
, November 14, 1857

A Civil Crocodile

Some six weeks ago a lively young crocodile contrived, one night, to effect its escape from Josepha Choikowa’s travelling menagerie, then exhibiting at Kuschwarda [in Bohemia], and all the efforts made to discover its hiding-place in the neighbouring brooks and ponds proving fruitless, its proprietress, after three days’ search gave it up as irretrievably lost, and departed on her further professional rounds.

A month later the smith of Salsau, a village not far from Kuschwarda, was strolling home towards evening through the rain, when he suddenly espied, lying in a huge puddle on the high road, what he took to be a drunken man, prostrate and helpless.

Upon wading into the mud, with the charitable intention of extricating the recumbent one from so miry a bed, he perceived to his astonishment that the object of his solicitude was the missing crocodile. Nothing daunted, he fastened a rope round the saurian’s scaly body behind its shoulders, and led it along until he met a cart, into which, with the assistance of the driver, he managed to lift it.

The crocodile made no resistance, but followed its captor as meekly as though it had been a tame dog tied to a string. On subsequent examination it was found to have increased in size and weight during its spell of liberty, and to be, for a crocodile, in excellent health and spirits.

What it was fed upon while roaming about the country, and how it had kept out of the cold during the chilly nights of May and June, are still mysteries to its owner, who has joyfully recovered possession of her truant.

The Illustrated Police News
, July 24, 1880

A Monkey’s Suicide

At Goldsboro, N.C. the other day, occurred one of the most novel suicides of the century, the victim being a monkey owned by Mr Rockwell Syrock.

The animal was quite a favourite with all the children for miles around and knew most of them. For several years, Jocko’s owner had been in the habit of visiting all the hangings in this portion of the state, taking the mischievous animal with him. The monkey always seemed to take an especial interest in such horrible proceedings.

On the 25th June, Alexander Howard was to have been executed for the murder of an old man, but the Governor respited him. The gibbet made for carrying out the sentence had been erected before the executive interposed his power and postponed it. Syrock visited the gaol with the monkey and examined these preparations.

The animal seemed to be unusually curious and watched the scaffold and trap with earnest eyes. Since that time he has been playing hanging in his master’s barn. One morning he was found dead, suspended by a clothes line to one of the rafters of the building.

The Illustrated Police News
, August 7, 1880

Elephant in Possession.

A Joyous Interloper

On Thursday considerable commotion was created in the neighbourhood of Lake Road, Landport, by an extraordinary escapade of the elephant ‘Picaninny,’ belonging to Mr Dan Sullivan, the ‘strong man’ now performing at the People’s Hall of Varieties in that thoroughfare.

The animal, which was stabled in a store behind some premises in Clarendon Street, belonging to Mr F. Pearce, the proprietor of the hall, escaped from the building by breaking open the door and having found its way into an adjoining alley, abutting Timpson Street, entered the house of a man named Charles Tubbs, where it remained unobserved for a considerable time.

Both Mr and Mrs Tubbs happened to be away from home when the animal gained admission by forcing open the front door. Finding no one to interfere with its diversions, it proceeded to demolish the contents of the two rooms on the ground floor.

Meanwhile its escape from the stable was discovered by the keeper, who, on going to the place for the purpose of feeding his ‘little pet,’ was dismayed to find the store unoccupied. A thorough search of the premises was followed by an inspection of the open ground adjoining, but no trace of the missing animal could be discovered, and the owner ultimately offered a reward of £1 to anyone who could give him information as to its whereabouts.

Presently Mr Tubbs returned home, and noticed that some turf in front of his cottage had been torn up. This he attributed to mischievous boys, but on reaching the door he observed that the window blind downstairs had disappeared, and at the same moment heard a peculiar noise, apparently proceeding from the back of the premises.

Peering through a back window, he was astonished to find the apartment tenanted by Picaninny, of whose escape he had heard. The animal was playfully throwing some pictures about the room with its trunk.

The keeper was soon brought upon the scene, and with some trouble the elephant was coaxed through the narrow passage, and led out of the house to safe quarters. Mr Tubbs has been satisfactorily compensated from the damage.

The Evening News
, Portsmouth, October 14, 1892

John Lubbock’s Pet Wasp

Perhaps the strangest pet ever kept by man was a wasp which Sir John Lubbock caught in the Pyrenees and resolved to tame.