Polish animal tamers are famous for not making mistakes. Now, however, a case has come to light in which a Polish animal tamer did make a mistake. The animal tamer, Lutoslawsky, who was formerly to be seen with the Krone Circus and the Sarassani Circus, had, after performing his famous panther number in his native city of Cracow, invited the mayor of Cracow, who was seated in the front row, to perform the panther number as he had done, the high point of the number being that the most agile of the panthers had to jump through a burning hoop. Until then, Lutoslawsky had been used to having everyone he asked to perform this suicidal trick refuse, in the nature of things, to do it, whereupon the panther number was finished and the next, the number with the talking donkey, began. The mayor of Cracow, however, to everyone’s surprise and to the animal tamer’s horror, accepted the challenge and entered the panthers’ cage, asked for and received the animal tamer’s whip, and, while Lutoslawsky watched the scene with his back to the bars of the cage, performed exactly the same number with the panthers that Lutoslawsky had done. It seemed to the audience that in the hands of the mayor of Cracow the number was much more exciting and even more artistic than in the hands of Lutoslawsky, and so, as is always said of enthusiasm, they heaped applause upon their mayor, whereas they had booed Lutoslawsky. Suddenly, in the midst of the applause, the panthers, which until then had been sitting quietly upon their stools, flung themselves onto Lutoslawsky and tore him limb from limb before the eyes of the horrified audience. Why they didn’t fling themselves onto the mayor, who managed to escape to safety, completely unharmed by the panthers, is what the Polish newspapers are asking.

Wrong Note

WRONG NOTE

In the Belgian city of Bruges a few hundred years ago, a nine-year-old chorister who had sung a wrong note in a mass that was being performed before the entire royal court in the Bruges cathedral is said to have been beheaded. It seems that the queen had fainted as a result of the wrong note sung by the chorister and had remained unconscious until her death. The king is supposed to have sworn an oath that, if the queen did not come round, he would have not only the guilty chorister but all the choristers in Bruges beheaded, which he did after the queen had not come to and had died. For centuries no sung masses were to be heard in Bruges.

The Auszügler

THE AUSZÜGLER