PERFORMING LIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 23, 7 June 1890, Page 19

PERFORMING LIONS.

I was in Paris lately, and had the pleasure of seeing some very excellent circus shows. Some of these were very curious, especially the performance of the lions. It seemed like an ancient Roman Gladiatorial Exhibition. The arena of the Nouveau Cirque is a movable one, and when the time came for the number of the programme which is making all Paris run, this arena was allowed to sink, while all round the edge a formidable railing rose up for our great security, forming, as it were, a great through the gilded bars of which we could look down on the gladiatorial games below. Gladiatorial all the more they appeared to be when a youth made his entrance holding in his hand a glittering trident. At the same time, two doors were flung open, a le vol ver was fired, and the performer, followed by four lions and a huge Danish hound, leapt down into the ring. The lions were rather disappointing. They were young, evidently undeveloped, and had the tenderness and affections of their age. It was not a blood-curdling sight, for they cuddled together, and were youthful ami gauche, anxious for sugar and

caresses, so that the reason for the glittering trident became a question. But perhaps the very clumsiness of these carnivorous hobbledehoys made it more surprising to see how cleverly they had been trained. They obeyed each word of command with the greatest readiness, in sleepy good nature. They formed pyramidsand figures, they held ribbons for the Danish dog to leap over, they see sawed on planks, they rode on tricycles propelled by the dog. The Danish dog was delightful to look at, quivering with intelligent enjoyment on his part of leader and fully appreciating the role he had to play. The lions seemed on very friendly terms with him, but I could not help thinking -and not without melancholy at the eternal inequalities of nature that the time would soon come when they would have outgrown him, and the friends of to-day must be separated for ever. The lions had the future ; there was nothing beyond for the dog.