ble than might be supposed,
through the jab of its sharp bristles. One tamer used a common chair
with much success against unbroken lions. If the creature came at him,
there were the four legs in his face; and soon the chair came to
represent boundless power to that ignorant lion. He feared it and
hated it, as was seen on one occasion when the tamer left it in the cage
and the lion promptly tore it into splinters.

[Illustration: THE LION DESTROYS THE CHAIR.]

Days may pass before the lion will let his tamer do more than merely
stay inside the cage at a distance. Very well; the tamer stays there. He
waits hour after hour, week after week, until a time comes when the lion
will let him move nearer, will permit the touch of his hand, will come
forward for a piece of meat, and at last treat him like a friend, so
that finally he may sit there quite at ease, and even read his
newspaper, as one man did.

Lastly begins the practice of tricks: the lion must spring to a pedestal
and be fed; he must jump from one pedestal to another and be fed, must
keep a certain pose and be fed. A bit of meat is always the final
argument, and the tamer wins (if he wins at all, for sometimes he fails)
by patience and kindness.

"There is no use getting angry with a lion," said a well-known tamer to
me, "and there is no use in carrying a revolver. If you shoot a lion or
injure him with any weapon, it is your loss, for you must buy another
lion, and the chances are that he will kill you, anyway, if he starts to
do it. The thing is to keep him from starting."

I once had a talk with the lion-tamer Philadelphia on the subject of
breaking lions, and heard from him what need a tamer has of patience. "I
have sat in a lion's cage," said Philadelphia, "two or three hours every
day for weeks, yes, for months, waiting for him to come out of his sulky
corner and take a piece of meat from me. And that was only a start
toward the mastery."

"Wouldn't he attack you?"

Philadelphia smiled. "He did at first, but that was soon settled. It
isn't hard to best a lion if you go at it right. I usually carry a pair
of clubs. Some men prefer a broom, because the bristles do great work in
a lion's face, without injuring him. But the finest weapon you can use
against a fighting lion is a hose of water. That stops his fight, only
you mustn't have the water too cold, or he may get pneumonia. You
mightn't think it, but lions are very delicate. In using the clubs, you