The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-05-06

travelling menagerie proprietor is as
ubiqu itOus nomad as the circus man.
ager. The whole world is his field o!
action. One year he may be in France;
another may fad him at Moscow,
at COnstantinOple, at Melbourne,
ct Calcutta, or in England. That
which public opinion should demand is
that the impressario Of public menass
eric should find that, as far as the en-
| ployment Of women in the cages Of wild
beasts was concerned. his occupation
was wholly gone, and that whenever he
| ventured TO advertise the performances
OF a Lion queen" or "a sleeping beauty
! in the lions mouth" he should at once
| be bounced upon by the police and
forced 10 abandon the contemplated
| performance. 1t is nothing but the
cupidity and rapacity of the showmen
that keeps these disgusting and demon
aliZing exhibitions alive They think
that they can take more money at their
| doors by the exhibition of female lion
tanners, and the same observation ap-
plies in degree to female performers on
the trapeze. female parachutists, female
acrobats and the like. The public, in
the matter OF shows, is not half so cal
lous or so eXacting as it is painted. No
public body ever addressed a requisit;on
TO daredevil swimmer TO shoot Mag
ara, or 70 confront the perils of the
Niagara rapids, or TO jump from the par
apet of bridge into a river. Some
times these madcap feats are attempted
A. l.
more frequently they are organized by
shrewd and INSCRIPTIONS spectators
for the sake of the admission or gate
money. The public at large, it may be
frankly admitted, have liking for dam
gerous exhibitions, but they do not call
for them; and if, by a simple measure
of police in every civilized country, the
exhibition of women in menageries was
irrevocably forbidden, no one would
venture TO ask, or even TO suggest, that
such displays should be revived.
We do not absolutely insist that the
profession of wild beast tanning by men
should be vigorously suppressed, because
we hold that such ilsistence would be
TO most intents and purposes substan-
TALLY UtOpian. 1t is impossible TO pass
law to prevent a Gordon-Cumming or
Jules Gerard from going out into the
wilderness with his rifles. his ammuni-
ton and his heaters. and killing any
number of lions; and if he Stays the
mOnarchs of the forest why should he
not be permitted to tame them il
he can? Every body has heard of the
deep interest which the great Duke of
Wellington took in the performance of
the undaunted Dutchman Van Amburg
and his savage pupils. The Duke was
never tired of seeing that show. of
which he commissioned Edwin Landseer
to paint him the picture: and day after
day he used TO visit the painters studio,
and watch the simulated forms of Van
Amburg and his wild beasts growing on
the canvas. History knows no epoch
when the subsection of wild beasts by
skillful and valiant men did not excite
the astonishment and admiration of
mankind. and sometimes il is not only
the man, but the lion. who has been
wondered at and applauded- We are
never tired of the story of the Dacian
slave who was recognized in the circus
of Rome, and was spared by a lion
whose wounded paw he had formerly
cured in his native woods. There is
an equally pretty and perhaps equal
ly fabulous South African story of
a missionary's little daughter, whom
very fierce lion was about TO
devour. when the beast apparently con-
ciliated by her blu. eyes and fair curls,
accepted from her a bouquet of flowers
and retired quite gracefully into the
forest glades. III is to be feared that
this naive anecdote is not more histor-
ical than Victor Hugo's story of the
lion which had devoured the King. the
Queen. the Lord Chamberlain, and all
the Yeomen of the Guard, and which,
being teproached with his barbarous
conduct by the little Princess, who
threatened he should have no more
plum cake if he did not mend his ways,
replied, putting his fore paw by the side
of his nose, that it was only his fun"
and that all his supposed victims were
alive safe and sound in his forest den.
This may be the fabulous aspect OF lion
tanning; and not much more authentic
may be the stories of Sardanapalus beck
oning the lion toward him with his lit
tie finger. and Paulus Superbus, the
Gaulish gladiator. who, armed with no
other weapon than little switch. made
a whole troupe Of lions trot submissively
behind him round the entire circuit of
the Coliseum at Rome. Very different
means Of procedure may have been
adopted by the Martins, the Van Am.
burgs. the Carriers, the Crocketts, the
Lucases and the Hermanns of modern
times. We are fain TO accept them as
we accept the riders OF steeple-chases
and the hunters of big game in distant
countries. and the general tribe of val
liant and adventurous spirits who SET
their lives upon a cast. and who, al.
though reckless enough. do certainly
show examples of valor and endurance;
hpr ctlph prdaalS NOT intended foI