l62 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



a basket in his hand, dances about the table, 

 waiting upon the company ; and the whole affair 

 is very amusing, but not very edifying. Two cen- 

 turies ago, if the annals of such resorts as Rane- 

 leigh Gardens, in London, can be trusted, monkeys 

 were taught accomplishments far in advance of 

 anything in modern shows. 



Next in zoological rank to the quadrumana, come 

 the carnivora the wild beasts lions, tigers, 

 leopards, wild-cats, wolves, dogs, foxes, and jackals ; 

 and those of the sea the seals, sea-lions, etc. 



Here culminates the interest of every circus 

 performance. The lion-tamer is king of kings. 

 A man who plays with tigers and juggles with 

 wolves compels us to admire to the utmost the 

 dominance of human courage. 



For these wild beasts are controlled wholly by 

 fear. Some men may acquire, for brief periods, 

 a certain influence over a lion or tiger or leopard, 

 but they are never safe never can be trusted for 

 a moment ; and a lion " tamer " is not really one 

 that is, he is not a person who has changed the 

 disposition of his charges from enmity to friend- 

 ship, persuading them out of their savagery into 

 a second nature of trust and self-control ; he 

 is simply a conqueror who enforces obedience. 

 And how complete is this human dominance when 

 it can force, literally, the lion to lie down with 

 the lamb, and the warring barons of the forest 

 to form a congress of peace and sit in a tableau ! 



