Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1903-03-20
. ERTAINLY in few fields has

i "a MI Ill lev ltluS nus
II n the progress been more rapid
than In the care and training of
wild beasts for the instruction and
entertainment of the public. OF course
II is natural that with the growth of
knowledge and experience in their
handling. the treatment has become
more humane, and the methods by
which they are schooled have under
gone the most radical changes. The
man who has charge of a modern ami
NAL spectacle calls himself a trainer.
rather than tanner; and he Is really
Il teacher In every sense of the word.
He must be man of fearlessness, to
/ be sure. but he must also possess the
magnetic qualities, the quick under
standing and the ready sympathy
which characterize the successful
teacher OF men. Indeed. 1t Is some
thing of a commentary on human edu-
cational systems that the trainer of
animals Is selected with far more care
and receives Il much larger reward
than the instructor OF men and boys.
Then, too, he has this advantage over
the public-school instructor-he choos-
es his pupils slowly and with an eye
to their future. Indeed, the most I'M
portant factor In attaining a complete,
interesting exhibition Is the choice of
the animals who are to form the nu-
cleus of the show. For this purpose
the very young are always given the
preference, and those born In captlvi-
ty are obtained whenever they<are
physically perfect specimens of their
kind, though the domestic-bred beasts
are not numerous. Such cubs are al
ways tanner to start with, and their
attention Is much more easily fixed
They do not have the far-away, long
Ing look which can be seen In the eyes
Of desert-bred lion. They have never
learned to strike and to eXult In the
feel of quivering flesh beneath their
paws.
As soon as cub Is able to crawl
around Its cage, the trainer gets ae
quainted with 1t and feeds 1t and
shows 1t that 1t has only kindness to
]
When 1t Is four or five months old
easy tricks are Misunderstanding on
a chair, lying down and rising at com
mand, playing with ball, and 50 on.
At first, the trainer deyotes all his
time to single animal until he has
impressed 1t with his ability to con
troll and direct its movements. Then
an older, thoroughly trained animal of
the same breed Is introduced, partly
for the example 1t can set in illustrat
ing how the more difficult tricks are
done and partly to accustom the cub
to association with its kind. Many
trainer bears deep and permanent
scars as a reward for performing the
first introduction or for Offering to ar
bitrate early differences of opinion be
tween two future friends.
The hardest task of all Is to accus
tom animals of one kind even to toler
ate the presence In the same cage of
animals of another kind, and months
OF patient effort are necessary before
newly assembled aggregation of ami
NAL actors will perform even the sim
plest combined tricks The makeup
of such an assemblage must be care
fully studied out, for the methods of
teaching vary with each new combina-
ton of animals.
Their health. too. is matter of
never ending anxiety, and gives a
trainer more trouble than the impresa-
rio feels over that of his high salaried
opera singers. If an actress Is indis-
posed her understudy can take the
part at q moments notice; but these
animal actors have no understudles,
and the omission of a beast or even
his chair or pedestal from an act often
disconcerts all the performers. On
the other hand. to compel sick ami
NAL to perform sometimes turns the
act into a tragedy for the trainer; for
II he once turns his back on his
charges, and fees for safety, he may
never be able to control them again.
and if he stays TO face the trouble,
serious wounds may result. Once let
beast see that you fear him. and
discipline is destroyed; and in
deed, a crisis in which a trainer fees
or Is rescued by helpers as rule
works so on his nerves that even IL
he should wish to enter the cage the
secret that he feared his beasts would
be discerned by them In spite of all
he could do, and his mastery of them
would be lost. Sometimes it happens
that trainer relaxes his caution or
commits an error OF Judgment. Many
4 trainer takes desperate chances be-
cause he or she had been fascinated
by the beauty of particular lion and
has determined to master it at what
ever risk.
Almost all animals have more dis
comment than they are usuallv given