LEAF AND TENDRIL 



that his performing lions and tigers are liable to 

 suffer from " stage fright," like ordinary mortals, but 

 that " once thoroughly accustomed to the stage, they 

 seem to find in it a sort of intoxication well known 

 to a species higher in the order of nature;" and 

 furthermore, that "nearly all trainers assert that 

 animals are affected by the attitude of an audience, 

 that they are stimulated by the applause of an en- 

 thusiastic house, and perform indifferently before a 

 cold audience." If all this is not mere fancy, but is 

 really a fact capable of verification, it shows another 

 human trait in animals that one would not expect 

 to find there. Bears seem to show more human 

 nature than most other animals. Bostock says that 

 they evidently love to show off before an audience : 

 "The conceit and good opinion of themselves, 

 which some performing bears have, is absolutely 

 ridiculous." A trainer once trained a young bear 

 to climb a ladder and set free the American flag, 

 and so proud did the bear become of his accom- 

 plishment, that whenever any one was looking on he 

 would go through the whole performance by him- 

 self, " evidently simply for the pleasure of doing it." 

 Of course there is room for much fancy here on the 

 part of the spectator, but bears are in so many ways 

 — in their play, in their boxing, in their walking — 

 such grotesque parodies of man, that one is induced 

 to accept the trainer's statements as containing a 

 measure of truth. 



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