162 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 zodlogical 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! 
