Sargano Alicamusa

A carte-de-visite portrait of the lion tamer Sargano Alicamusa.

According to an announcement in The Era (12 December 1880), he was appearing at a Grand Fancy Fair at Bingley Hall, Birmingham. ‘Alicamous, the great African Lion Trapper and Tamer, will enter the Den of his Noble Group of Lions (Seventeen in Number), the largest collection of Lions ever seen Performing at one time.’

It was during this run that Alicamusa was nearly killed by one of his lions. ‘At Sanger’s Mammoth Menagerie, at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, on Saturday, the lion “Wallace,” which a week since shockingly mangled one of the attendants, ferociously attacked and seriously lacerated the lion tame, a coloured man named Alicamusa, who narrowly escaped with his life. […] Alicamousa was clawed on both sides of the face and struck to the ground and bitten in the arm' (Grantham Journal, 29 January 1881).

According to several sources on the Internet, his real name was John Humphries and he was born in 1859 on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. However, none of these websites cites a source for this information. Another Internet source says that his real name was John Holloway Bright, but again gives no source for the information.

Part of this seems to be confirmed by an interview with Alicamusa that appeared in the Dundee Weekly News (4 September 1886). ‘Well, sir, I was born on the 10th December, 1859, at Kingstown, St Vincent, West Indies. My parents were Africans — not badly off, for my father was a farmer, and laid himself out to educate me. [..] I was a boisterous, venturesome dare-devil, but, withal, a good natured boy.’ The interview continues with the tale of how he came to leave St Vincent (he befriended a British naval officer when he was thirteen), his first employment in London (riding an elephant in Sanger’s circus in Westminster Bridge Road) and how he became a lion tamer (one day Sanger dared him to enter the lions’ cage).

Photographed by Robert Milne of Aboyne in Scotland, who on several occasions photographed Queen Victoria and members of the royal family at Balmoral.

This portrait of Alicamusa was probably taken during Edward Henry Bostock’s ‘first tour through Scotland’ in September 1884. The ‘grand star menagerie’ visited Banff, Turriff, New Byth, Aberdour, Fraserburgh, Strichen, and New Pitsligo. According to an advertisement in the Aberdeen Evening Gazette (8 September 1884), ‘The Collection embraces many valuable additions never before exhibited in a Travelling Menagerie, besides splendid groups of Forest-bred Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Bears, Wolves, Hyenas, Elephants, Camels, Dromedaries, Antelopes of many kinds, and multitudes of other Beasts, Birds, and Reptiles too numerous to detail. […] The Lions, Elephants, and other Savage Animals have been Trained to Perform by SARGANO, the Renowned African Lion Hunter, who will at each representation perform his Deeds of Daring in a manner that cannot fail to elicit the admiration of all beholders.’

The price of admission was 1 shilling for adults and 6d for children under the age of 12.