THE LION HOUSE AT THE ZOO 
65 
trade. His menagerie at Chicago attracted more 
visitors even than the “ gigantic wheel,” mainly 
because the creatures had more liberty and more 
space than they enjoy in any other “ gardens ” ; and 
it is probable that he will effect a marked change in 
the modes of animal exhibitions now in use. 
Meantime, whether in summer or winter, the Lion 
House is perhaps better worth seeing than any branch 
of the Society’s menagerie. 
Few public characters are “ at home” to visitors 
during so many hours of the day as its inmates ; who 
might with justice enter a protest against the incivility 
of the public, which insists on taking the notice that 
“ The lions will be fed at three o’clock,” as a pressing 
invitation to be spectators of their manners at meal- 
times. Yet the economy of the Lion House so far 
differs from the ordinary life of the other inmates of 
the Zoo that, for an undiscerning public which wants 
excitement and has no time for observation, there is 
every inducement to confine its visits to a particular 
hour. The cattle-sheds, the Antelope House, the 
Monkey Palace, or the Aviaries, present much the 
same appearance at any time of the day. The pleasant 
round of comfort — eating, drinking, playing, or 
sleeping — goes on without variety or long cessation. 
But the life of the great carnivora is ordered differently, 
and with greater exactness. In the morning, in the 
Lion House, all is quiet. The animals are resting or 
sleeping, and the only visitors are artists or photo- 
graphers, whom the lions “ oblige” with a sitting at 
