A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press Read Online Free PDF Page A

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