CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. Tell how work was usually divided in a primitive tribe. Compare with the way in which it is divided in a modern community. 2. Mention three ways of preserving meat known to primitive women. Name four ways of preserving meat used nowadays. Explain the three methods of cooking described in the selection. Which of these have you used when camping or picnicking? 3. What invention was necessary in order to be able to cook by the application of heat outside the cooking-utensil? Find the passage in "Alone in a Forest," p. 18, describing the way the lost man cooked his food. Tell whether this passage agrees in all respects with Mason's account. 4. How did primitive woman supply her family with clothing? 5. Make a list of the utensils in daily use in your home which probably developed from inventions by primitive women. ADDITIONAL READINGS. 1. "The Food Bringer," O. T. Mason, Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, 14-40. 2. "Primitive Methods of Cooking," O. T. Mason, The Origins of Invention, 103-106. 3. "Primitive Uses of Plants," O. T. Mason, ibid., 186–204. 4. "The First Farmers of Virginia," A. H. Sanford, Story of Agriculture in the United States, 12-23. CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS TAMING PLANTS 1. "John Gilley," C. W. Eliot, in Stories of the Day's Work, 244–266. 2. 'The New American Farmer," H. N. Casson, in Vocational Reader, 66 29-34. 3. "The Corn Song," J. G. Whittier, ibid., 41-43. 4. "John James Audubon, Naturalist," in Makers of Our History, 147 5. 66 158. Horticulture Offers a New Open-Air Vocation for Women," K. S. 6. "The Last Threshing in the Coulee," Hamlin Garland, in The Joy in Work, 136-146. 7. "The Story of an Up-to-Date Farm," Wonder Book of Knowledge, 556-574. 8. "The Stove," Stories of Useful Inventions, 13-27. 9. "The Plow," ibid., 73-84. 10. "Burbank the Wizard and His Plant 'Factory'," Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 2: 538-539. II. "How the Farmer Educated the Wild Cabbage," ibid., 2: 553-55512. "The Most Useful of All Domestic Animals," ibid., 2 : 662-663. One mark of a good reader is the ability to find information quickly. In this selection the author describes critical moments with six different kinds of wild animals. After the signal to begin reading is given, glance through the selection rapidly and find what the six different kinds of animals are. When you find them, raise your hand. Then read the entire selection carefully. It is no longer necessary to tell the public that any performance with wild animals is always attended by very great danger. The old idea that the animals were drugged or that their teeth had been pulled and their claws drawn, or that they were "nothing but a lot of tame cats anyway," has more than once been disproved. As for the theory that wild animals become "tame," it is seldom now that one even hears the word used in connection with them. But the public does not and can not realize the moments of extreme danger that occur at every performance. A snarling lion that stands and defies its trainer calls forth thrills of suspense and nervousness from the audience; a tiger that reaches forth its paw and tries to claw at its trainer is stared at with awe and dismay; yet, more often than not, such threats are mere child's play compared with some of the dangers that threaten in parts of the performance that the public thinks are harmless. Any one who has seen Claire Heliot perform with her twelve lions will remember that, after making them do various acts together, she sends all but two back to their pedestals; the two she singles out do special tricks by themselves. This looks very easy, but there is always one great danger in the performance one of the most treacherous lions is behind her. Until this was called to my attention I had not noticed anything unusual, except that one of the lions at the back would occasionally get down from its pedestal. From this time on I watched carefully, and at every performance I saw that this particular lion crept with apparent indifference off his pedestal, and was ordered sharply to return to it by his trainer. As long as the animals remain on their pedestals Miss Heliot is safe, but a lion prowling about has nothing to think of but mischief. Many a time the trainer has turned round only just in time, and there is always the fear that some day she may not turn quickly enough. Another dangerous moment is the instant when Miss Heliot, after making the four biggest lions lie down in a row, lies on top of them. This is the most critical act in the whole performance, for while she is prostrate many things might happen. Should one of the lions get up suddenly, she would be at a terrible disadvantage, for one of the first necessities of a trainer is to keep on his feet. But the chief danger lies with the lions at the back of the arena. Should one of them reach her before she gets up, nothing could save her. In Mundy's animal show, a trainer put his arms round the neck of a lioness and rested his head calmly on hers. The act was not much to look at rather tame, in fact, after some of the other feats; but it was the most dangerous moment in that trainer's performance. He had twice had serious accidents at this part of his performance. He told me that, as the lioness came forward at his signal, unless he put his arms around her neck almost instantly, she would strike at him sharply with her paw. His face still bore deep scars from previous attacks. Another trick with this lioness was one in which the trainer took a long strip of meat, put one end of it in his mouth, and let the lioness take the other in hers. Hardly any one in the audience realized the danger of this feat. To allow any wild animal to put its face so close to the face of a person is in itself dangerous; but to give it also the opportunity of snapping or biting at such close quarters is foolhardy. Since this act generally passed off very quietly, it was not particularly popular with the audience; but one evening, when the lioness was in a bad humor, she missed catching her end of the meat, and instantly sprang for the trainer. He had the presence of mind to throw the piece of meat away from him; but even though a table was between them she tore his throat and nearly killed him. Few people realized that there had been any accident at all, so quickly was the act ended and both the trainer and the lioness taken out of the arena. But I was told afterward that the trainer refused to go through the act again. I once asked Captain Bonavita what he considered the most dangerous moment when he performed with his twenty-seven lions. He said that he thought it was when he first entered the arena. The moment before, when he had to drive this great herd of lions in, was almost as bad; but the first few minutes when the crowd of lions entered were terribly uncertain and, undoubtedly, the most dangerous. In the first place, with such a crowd there was the danger of his being pushed or knocked down. Then there was the danger of his tripping among the lions, or of stepping on their tails; for many of them would lie down and roll over and over as a preliminary to the performance, and if he were not struck by their feet, he was just as likely to be hit across the face or body by their strong, rope-like tails. In getting the lions into their places there was also danger, for in such a crowd it is difficult to treat each animal according to its peculiar traits; and a flick of the whip intended for one lion which would be fairly indifferent to it, is likely to strike another to which the blow will mean instant rebellion. In any sort of revolt all the lions will side with the one that caused the trouble. And yet, it was not at such a time that Captain Bonavita received from the notorious lion, Baltimore, the terrible injuries that made necessary the amputation of his right arm. The accident happened quite suddenly and unexpectedly, as such accidents do. The perilous moments of waiting were over - for waiting in the runway with twenty-seven lions in readiness to enter the arena is truly a perilous time, one that the audience never thinks of. The twenty-seven lions had walked, ambled, or rushed into the arena, followed by Captain Bonavita. The two doors at the back, with their little eyelet-holes, through which the helpers watch for danger, had been closed and locked. The band had struck its opening chord with which the trainer always makes his bow to the audience, and, one by one, the lions had climbed on their pedestals; while Captain Bonavita, quiet, calm, but always keenly alert and watchful, had walked about, here and there pointing to a pedestal, flicking his whip lightly at those lions which appeared to forget what they had come for. The performance seemed well on its way, when, in a sudden turn of his lithe, well-built body, Captain Bonavita became aware of a huge brown mass facing him and two enormous paws striking savagely at his head and shoulders. The trainer knew in a moment what had happened. The brown mass was Baltimore, the most treacherous of the lions. The next moment Bonavita was fighting for his life. Before the helpers at the back could rescue him his right arm had been mutilated so terribly that it had to be amputated. And yet, Captain Bonavita, after nearly a year of nerve-racking agony (following three or four operations), went back to the show business, and performed with the very same lion, which continued to be noted for his surliness and ill-humor. I once saw Bonavita being photographed with Baltimore; and as I watched him with the brute that had so nearly ended his life, while they were being posed for the photograph, I was unable to detect in the man a single motion of fear, not even a flicker of the eyelids! The same unawareness of the public of the most dangerous moments in performances with wild animals appears in a wellknown act with a tiger. The audience sits in fearful silence watching the snarling beast come nearer and nearer to his trainer, until, with a wild growl of fury, he launches himself full at the man. The trainer always vaults lightly to one side, and the tiger vents his rage on an innocent wooden chair, which he deliberately crunches to pieces. Undoubtedly danger is present in the act |