Noted Vincentian – Alicamousa the Lion Tamer

NOTED VINCENTIAN – Alexander or John Humphreys AKA “Alicamousa” The Lion Tamer The story of this St. Vincent native was uncovered in newspaper files dating back to the late 1800′s. He is believed to have been born before 1866 since the first article found on him dates to 1881, and tells how he saw his first “menagerie” (what circuses were first called) at the age of 15. He was called Alexander or John HUMPHREYS when he left the island in the company of a group of “English gentlemen” who went to Morocco on a hunting trip. He apparently never returned, finding notoriety in Europe a number of years later after he joined SANGER’s famed English circus”.

ALICAMOUSA’S FIRST PERFORMANCE
How he came to use the name Alicamousa has not been determined. In a London Times article dated 17 April 1882 (involving a business matter of his employer), he is identified as John HUMPHREYS and states that his professional name is “Alicamousa”. His first performance likely took place about 1878, since a New York Times article about his being attacked by a lion (see details of the attack below) states that “Alicamousa has for the last three years been in the habit of performing with the lion Wallace, who is a magnificent beast nearly eight feet in length”. A Los Angeles Times article dated 16 July 1893 reveals that his first journey into the lion cage came after “the official lion tamer” lost his nerve and “refused to go into the cage, and the performance would have come to an end had not Alicamousa offered to take his place, and there it was that he found to his surprise that he had a remarkable ascendency over the animals”.

ATTACKED TWICE
Alicamousa was attacked by a lion at least twice during his career. One incident was detailed in the New York Times for 06 February 1881. The attack took place at Bingley Hall in Birmingham, England during a performance in a show owned by a Mr. SANGER. The article states that Alicamousa was bitten on the arm, scratched on both sides of his head, and knocked to the ground, by a lion named Wallace. Fortunately, his injuries were not serious. As for the lion, he was taken out of the show and sent to a zoo in Margate, England. The newspaper story reports that a crowd of 3,000 people watching the performance left in a “state of great fright”. Alicamousa’s second attack by a lion is profiled in the same Los Angeles Times article noted above. This attack took place in France, although no date is given. It occurred during a performance involving six lions. It seems a spectator irritated one of the animals, and it bit Alicamousa severely on the arm, a wound which took weeks of recovery time. Upon his return to the cage, he says, “all six animals, including the one who had bitten me, were so overjoyed at my presence that they nearly broke the cage up leaping and gamboling about like young kittens”.

NATIVITY & APPEARANCE
We learn that Alicamousa was “born in the island of St. Vincent” from the Los Angeles Times article noted above. He is described as “a young West Indian of African origin”. Further details describe his physical appearance as “standing 6 feet 4 inches in his stockings. He is of exceptionally heavy build, and his huge brawny limbs look as though they could hold their own with the strong forepaws of the king of beasts”.

FAMOUS ANIMAL TRAINER
Alicamousa’s lion taming abilities are fully described in the L. A. Times article. It states that “the West Indian has succeeded in accomplishing what no other trainer of wild beasts has ever even attempted to do — that is to teach a lion to come amicably into the very closest contact with a human being without even unsheathing its claws”. Some of Alicamousa’s performances involved “wrestling” with one lion, “and he soon became famed throughout Europe as a trainer”. The 1893 article describes him as having trained many animals in the last 12 years. Besides lions, he trained tigers, bears and wolves. When asked which animals are best to train, he stated “Lions and tigers without a doubt. I have found bears very stupid, and there is practically nothing to be done with wolves”.

LATER LIFE
No details have yet been found about Alicamousa’s later years. His place of death is also unknown.

ALICAMOUSA MENTIONED IN BOOK
In the book Menageries Circuses and Theatres by E. H. Bostock, Sargano Alicamousa is mentioned several times as having been employed by the Bostock and Wombwell menagerie in the 1880′s. The book states that by 1891, Sargano Alicamousa had become very popular in Scotland, and wanted to start his own menagerie. He later did have his own menagerie but it was not successful, and Sargano Alicamousa returned to Bostock’s show.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

The following is from a circus/menagerie program from the 1890′s located in a British archive.

Life and Adventures Of Sargano Alicamousa, Or, the Roving Lion Tamer

I was born on the 10th December, 1859, at Kingstown, St. Vincent, West Indies, of African parents. My father was a moderately well-to-do farmer. I was sent to school, and, at the age of ten, won first prize in my class for grammar. My father did his utmost towards giving me a good education, but I was continually running away from school, and was, in fact, what my father called me, “a very wild boy.” On these excursions nothing would please me better than to get among the sailors, and listen to their stories about England, and the foreign countries they had visited, which raised within me such a desire to travel, that my father often remarked that he thought I should be a sailor. He prophesied truly. I was thirteen years of age when an English officer, belonging to one of Her Majesty’s ships then lying off the coast, took a liking to me, and asked me if I would like to travel with him. It would be impossible to describe my feelings at a proposal so compatible with my own desire; enough to say that I thankfully accepted the offer. My father, however, was not nearly so pleased as myself; indeed, his rage upon hearing of my engagement almost mounted to madness. I, however, had determined to go, and therefore seized the first opportunity that offered, and very shortly afterwards sailed with the gentleman who had engaged me, thus leaving, at the age of thirteen, a home which I have never since seen. I will pass over the next year of my life, during which we cruised about. About twelve months from the time of starting, however, an exciting incident occurred, which gave me my first experience in lion hunting. We were lying off a small town on the coast of South Africa, when some of the officers proposed a day’s hunting in the forest. The proposition met with general approbation, and it was agreed that a start should be made next morning. I begged of my master to allow me to be one of the party, and he agreed. The next day (a Tuesday, as I remember) we started at about eleven o’clock in the morning; there were about twenty Englishmen and ten natives. The Englishmen were armed with guns, revolvers, and swords, and the Africans with spears and daggers. We had to travel a good many miles before we saw anything, and where about to return, when one of the officers with us gave an alarm, and there, right in front of us, we saw a full-grown leopard. Not knowing the ferocity of this animal, I was about to rush on it, when my footsteps were arrested by a loud roar beside me. I looked around, and not far from me saw a large lion, accompanied by a lioness and two cubs. This caused me to retreat a little, and wait for the rest of the party to come up, when the lion was quickly dispatched. We also wounded the lioness, but she made off with her two cubs; we chased her to the cave she occupied in the rocks, but not very deep, where she was soon riddled with bullets. Of course it was an easy task to capture the cubs. I, being the smallest in the party, was elected to go into the cave and drive them out, when they were caught by the party outside. My behaviour during this expidition was a theme of great admiration, and caused the officers and all on board to think a great deal of me.

We returned to England four months later, and the two young lions were presented to the Zoological Company for their Gardens in London. My master, on his return, bought out his commission, and determined to retire. I stayed with him some time, but finding life in a country mansion much too quiet and irksome for me, I made up my mind to run away. I managed, therefore, to slip away unobserved, and made my way to London. Here, of course, I was a perfect stranger, but I had no money with me, and so had to make the best of it. One night, while standing in Westminster Bridge Road, I noticed the people going into Sanger’s Theatre, so I went in; I was delighted with the performance, and determined, if I could, to get employed in it myself. Next morning, therefore, I waited on Mr. Sanger to ask him to employ me; fortunately, he was just then on the look out for a young negro, and so closed with me directly. That same night, then, saw me mounted on an elephant, promenading the stage. I had to go through this performance twice a day for five or six weeks, when one day I was astonished by Mr. Sanger telling me to be ready at 3 o’clock to accompany him. At 3 o’clock I was ready. We started from Victoria station, and in a couple of hours had reached Margate, when we at once proceeded to the Hall-by-the-Sea. Mr. Sanger then told me that this Hall, and the Menagerie attached thereto, belonged to him; he showed me round the Menagerie, and then told me he should require me to stop there and help the keeper with the animals. He then gave me a sovereign and went away. I was shown the way to feed the lions, tigers, & c., and clean the dens out.

One day, about a fortnight after my arrival, Mr. Sanger came down to Margate. I was cleaning out a den containing two lions and a lioness, when he asked me if I would dare to go into the cage. I answered that I would dare anything, and went in. When I wanted to come out, one of the lions was lying by the door, and would not move; I, therefore, struck him with my stick, whereupon he gave a growl and looked as if it really meant to spring on me, I must confess that for the moment my nerve failed me; however, keeping my position and approaching with renewed courage one step towards him, he moved slyly away, and in an instant I was outside the cage; after seeing this, Mr. Sanger told me that if I could manage and make them perform, he would pay me well, and I should travel with him. I thought this a very advantageous offer, and decided to try my best to do what he desired. I went to work, therefore, and in a short time could make them jump over my legs, and was able even to handle one of them, open his mouth, & c. My courage was greatly admired, being noticed more on account of my youth, I being then but seventeen years old. I was, of course, greatly encouraged by the praise that was bestowed on me; but I was soon to enter more earnestly into the task of subduing the King of the Forest.

Shortly after, I was called upon to accompany the Circus to France with my lions. We arrived in Dunkirk on a Monday morning, where we remained for five days; after that we travelled through France, visiting all the principal towns. While at Sedan, I was performing with my lions one afternoon, when one of the lionesses, whilst jumping over my arm, bit me. Of this I took very little notice, merely having it dressed, and in due time prepared for the evening performance. While going through this performance, the same lioness who had bit me in the afternoon, sprang at me, but with one blow of my loaded whip I felled her to the ground. She came again, however, and this time bit my legs, leaving four large holes, and scratched my thigh severely. There is no doubt that, had I not struck her three or four heavy blows, and fired a blank cartridge before her eyes, my first struggle with a lioness would also have been my last; as it was I had to be taken to the hospital, where I lay for six weeks.

We returned to England after a ten months’ tour in France, bur my sojourn here was very short, I being sent out again shortly after to the Porte St. Martin, the largest Theatre in Paris, where I had the pleasure of performing before most of the Royalty and Nobility of France.

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