The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-09-10
Among the Lion Tanners,

NeAAASAS1
3orty or fifty years. Originally there
we're 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
five brothers own more menagerles
than | could count On all my fingers
and are better known than even the
famous Forepaugh himself. One OF
the original five is a successful farmer
in the Brie country; another was muir
dered by one OF his employees in a
burst ofpassion; a third died anatural
death; a fourth was SO badly bitten
by lions that he departed this life
leaving some of his flesh intheir bellies
and the fifth is he"Monsieur" Baptiste
Pezon, whose daughter was mar
ried to her cousin Aleck the 5th OF
August. So when l saidP like to go,
Bidel said, "That'n 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, a queer little suburban village
made up OF a single street and border
ing on the edge OF Vincennes Park,
lust the other side of the fortifca-
tons around Paris. There were q
hundred or so men and women pres
ent, 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.
Hooked around me and saw O. curl
Gus group. 1t was almost wholly
made up OF those mountebanks, wrest-
lers, 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 | 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 a
child in the Chester valley that hon.
ors it's father and it's mother more
than do these vagabonds from the
continent. The profession is handed
down from fathert to son andto daugh-
ter like a title Of nobility. 1t has been
SO for ages and it will continue to be
Cor many generations to come.
At Saint Mande M. Pezon requested
the gentlemen to give their arms to
the ladies and escort them to the din
ing room. l offered mine at hazard
and captured a prize, and no mistake
aboutit. For the most part those
seated at the long table were all celeb
rites. There were some fifteen or
sixteen Pezons half a dozen Bidels,
two or three of some other families
famous in their present generation
present, MOTTO mention widows whose
husbands had been killed behind the
won 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 a the principal
performer at the Aunt Menagerie.
/ 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
for anything but a struggle with fero-
cious beasts-an exquisite being, SO to
speak, not coarse nor powerful in APP
pearance, and who spoke OF making
the king OF beasts crouch at her feet in
a tone of voice that showed she
thought no more of it than any Ameri.
q girl would OF. munching a box oil
bon-bons. She goes into a lions cage
without any other defence than her
personal courage; she keeps her eyes
fixed without ainching on their glarlne
eyeballs, 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, O.
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 tt
her rosy cheeks. AT her command
they jump through the hoops, stant
on their hind legs, lay their great
heads on her knees, and stand mo
tionless as she stretches herself out al
full length on Their backs. ALI this
she told me she did ten or a dozer
times in the course Of q single evening
and then, when there were no NOR,
spectators, the gas was turned of
the lions stretched out their tired
limbs on the straw, and she Il ok OF
her tights and tinselled bodice. Blu
before she goes home she gives a las