MENAGERIE ANIMALS 107 



Sanger makes the following ingenuous defence of 

 his profession. <I have trained everything in the 

 business/ he writes, ' from the child to the elephant, 

 and I would like to deny the slanderous things that 

 have been written by inexperienced people, and to 

 correct the idea of the ignorant, that everything be- 

 longing to circus life must be carried on by the arm of 

 terror and cruelty. There may be isolated cases ; but 

 the people of my profession, I am proud to say, have 

 the feelings of fathers and mothers. With regard to 

 the training of children, the care and interest bestowed 

 in the teaching of arduous tricks are really an education 

 and the perfection of humanity ; and with regard to the 

 training of horses, a bit of sugar or a carrot is far more 

 1 efficacious and more often used than the whip.' But 

 horses are not wild beasts ; and Pezon admitted that 

 he never dared to take his eyes off those of his lions 

 until he contrived to have some highly-charged electric 

 wires between them and him. White bears are almost 

 too dangerous to train at all. Some appeared in 

 Hagenbeck's last sale catalogue ; but even Pezon 

 was nearly killed by one, and retired from training 

 after the accident. His colleagues in the business 

 claimed that sangfroid and courage were the main 

 qualities in the success of the domfteur^ and that the 

 animals felt first surprise, then astonishment, and lastly 

 fear of the man who did not fear them. But the 



