32 BEASTS AND MEN 
this could be done with these small carnivores, a like result 
could be achieved with lions and tigers. 
The first experiment in this ‘ ‘gentle” dining as as 1 will 
call it, was made with lions during the years 1887-89. For 
my purpose I used no fewer than twenty-one lions, but so 
variable are the characters of animals, that only four turned 
out to have the necessary talent for the work. I will not go 
into details of the training in this place, but will only say that 
the success with the remaining four lions was nothing short of 
astounding. They carried out all manner of tricks, the 
climax of the performance coming when the trainer harnessed 
three of the mighty carnivores to a chariot and drove triumph- 
antly around the cage. This troupe first appeared in the 
Nouveau Cirque in Paris in 1889, and during the next 
few years they were exhibited in many other towns, bringing 
me, I may mention incidentally, a very large profit. 
At that time all the world was looking forward to the 
great exhibition at Chicago, which was to take place in 1893, 
and it occurred to me that it would be a grand thing if I could 
exhibit there a huge troupe of performing animals, trained on 
my new humane system. I therefore commenced to get 
together a large collection of. wild beasts for this purpose. 
My troupe consisted of twelve lions, two tigers, several 
cheetahs and three bears. These performers were first 
exhibited in 1891, at the Crystal Palace, in London, where 
they were in charge of my brother-in-law, Heinrich Mehrmann, 
who in the meantime had become my most distinguished 
animal tamer. At the Crystal Palace they were an immense 
success, and two Americans offered me 50,000 dollars for the 
troupe—a handsome sum. This offer I refused, little knowing rh 
that I was thereby throwing £10,000 into the gutter. ae 
I was now in for a bad time. One day in September I 
heard from Mehrmann that the animals were sick, and that 
he was unable to diagnose the ailment. As the beasts were 
to be brought back to Hamburg in October, and as the trouble 
did not sound serious, I thought it unnecessary to take any 
