Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-09-10
Among the Lion Tanners.

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From the Philadelphia Times. !.
The Pezons are a family of lion
tanners, and they have been SO these
torty or fifty years. Originally there
were five brothers OF that name who
travelled all over France, going to
country fairs to exhibit lions and
bears, over which they had acquired
complete control. Their show took,
and to-day the descendants of those
i've brothers own more menageries
than I could count on all my fingers
and are better known than even the
famous Forepaugh himself. One OF
the original five is successful farmer
in the Brie country; another WAS MUIR
aered by one OF his employees in a
burst ofpassion; third died natural
, death; q fourth was so badly bitten
by lions that he departed this life
leaving some of his flesh in their bellies
and the fifth is he"Monsieur" Baptiste
Pezon, whose daughter was mar.
cied to her cousin Aleck the 5th OF
:: August. So when I said I'd like to go,
Bidel said, ''That'll be all right" and
,, IN due time my invitation to the we'd
ding breakfast reached me.
1t read that the noce would be in
The Salon des Families out at Saint
Mande, q queer little suburban village
made up OF a single street and border
ing on the edge of Vincennes Park,
Just the other side OF the fortihca-
tons around Paris. There were a
hundred or so men and women pres
eat, and Pezon said "They're all in
the profesh' with as much pride as
; friend Zimmerman will find in telling
his Philadelphia acquaintance about
what he saw and suffered in Europe.
l looked around me and saw curl
Gus group. 1t was almost wholly
made up Of those nountebanks, wrest-
'ers, dwarfs, giants, fat women, bad
actors, and wild beast tanners that in
America would be known as "side
show" people. Yes, they are indeed
Bohemians, but l believe that every
man present was an honest man and
that every woman is virtuous as she
understands it. Ignorant, illiterate,
dirty, too often given to drink, these
kind OF mortals may be, but they new
er rob nor cheat their fellow man.
They make good families even if they
are nomads, and there never was G.
child in the Chester valley that hon
ors its father and its mother more
than do these vagabonds from the
continent. The profession is handed
down from father to son and to daugh-
ter like title OF nobility. 1t has been
50 for ages and it will continue to be
for many generations to come.
At Saint Mande NJ. Pezon requested
the gentlemen to give their arms to
the ladies and escort them to the din
| ing room. offered mine at hazard
and captured 81 prize, and no mistake
sboutit. For the most part those
seated at the long table We're all celeb
rites. There were some fifteen or
sixteen Pezons nall dozen Bidels,
two or three of some other families
| famous in their present generation
present, not to mention widows whose
! husbands had been killed behind the
iron bars. My pretty young neighbor
broke the ice by pointing out the man
We'll, who was nearly eaten up by
lions at Nantes last spring, and then
she told me that her name was Mile.
Zelis, and that she was the principal
performer at the Aunt Menagerie.
l found myself very much taken
with my new neighbor. Here WAS a
woman not more than 26years OF age,
good looking and with a waist made
tor anything but struggle with Zero
clous beasts-an exquisite being, SO to
speak, not coarse nor powerful in ap.
pearance, and who spoke OF making
the king OF beasts crouch at her feet in
y tone OF voice that showed she
thought no more Of it than any Ameri-
can girl would OF munching a box OF
bon-bons. She goes into lions cage
without any other defence than her
personal courage; she keeps her eyes
fixed without fiinching on their glarlne
ayeballs, puts her white jeweled fingers
through their tawny names, pulls
them around, leases them, calls them
! by name in her SOFT voice; they
rub themselves caressingly against
her shapely legs-enclosed, OF
course, in neatly fitting tights
roll at her feet like kittens, and when
she stoops her pretty face toward
them and says, kiss me quick" they
lovingly touch their fierce nostrils to
her rosy cheeks. At her command
they jump through the hoops, stand
on their hind legs, lay their great
heads on her knees, and stand mo
tionless as she stretches herself out at
| ;ul! length on their backs All this
she told me she did ten or q dozen
times in the course Of a single evening,
and then, when there were no more
spectators, the gas was turned off,
! the lions stretched out their tired
limbs on the straw, and she took OF
her tights and tinselled bodice But
before she goes home she gives g last
ook at her pets to see thy are prop.
erly cared for and that their cages are
securely fastened.
"Have you never been bitten OF
scratched by your lions?" I asked
Mile. leila, after she had told me all
5his.
"Oh, yes, several times. You ought
% see my body. Lhave scars all over
! IT, she answered.
1glanced at her. Nothing could be
more serious than she looked. Ought
TO see her body! Well, I never. But
| said nothing, and she continued: "a
was once very badly bitten in the
thigh, and here on my arm, where you
| see this white scar, Brutus's teeth met
one day through the flesh. He was
only in play, however, and had no i'll
! ;ention OF hurting when he snapped at
ne. The poor fellow almost broke
his heart over the accident" Their
she told me about a cub, born only
ZEN days ago, son Of Brutus, and
not any bigger than q buddy dog. Its