Leave the Beast Alone
Concussus:
– 6 February 2026 –
Concussus:
You see the beast in his cage. The sight is unnerving.
Do those thin bars really hold this specimen in? Or is it only the daily meat supply?
Care to find out? Can you handle a roaming beast?
Best to back away. Leave this beast alone….
Washington Times, “Lucky For Photo Man Zoo Bars Bar Lions,” 9 Feb. 1935
Lucky for Photo Man Zoo Bars Bar Lions
Josef, the African lion, objected to being photographed. Launching himself at the bars of his cage, he attempted to claw the photographer while his infuriated roars started the other lions who added their chorus to the din.
Josef’s mate, Johana, and his daughter, Trilgy, who live in the next cage, finally allowed the photographer to get near enough to shoot. But that, as Head Keeper William Blackburn slyly remarked, is because the female of the species is vainer than the male.
Present to Coolidge
Josef and his mate were captured in South Africa seven years ago and presented to President Coolidge while he was in the White House.
Mr. Coolidge didn’t relish the idea of pet lions around, even though both were tiny cubs at the time, and he promptly gave them to the zoo.
Four years later when Johana gave birth to Trilby and her brother there was a celebration because it is difficult to raise lions in captivity.
Trilby is a big girl now and lives in the cage with her mother. They play together like kittens except at meal times when the instinct of the kill makes them so savage that Trilby is shunted into another cage.
Contrary to public opinion, lions do not eat bones, unless they are soft, and when the meal is over a “scrapper” is shoved through the bars and the bones removed.
Josef on Diet, Eh?
Josef wasn’t hungry today and his meat lay untouched in his cage. But when the keeper tried to remove it he curled his lip and snarled, so Mr. Blackburn ordered the man to leave the beast alone.
All the Zoo animals live on schedule. They are fed, watered and their cages cleaned at the same hour every day. So they become creatures of habit and the sound of a knife being sharpened is enough to start the whole lion house roaring.
At one time, Mr. Blackburn said, the meat was cut up in the basement and the animals knew it. Now, though it is prepared elsewhere, they still roar at the sound of sharpening.
