Richard De Kenzo, one of the most daring trainers, nearly lost his life at one time because he had not insisted on an animal promptly obeying him. De Kenzo prefers to train only the more savage and treacherous beasts, but in this case he had concluded that the animal was not feeling very well, and it is a strict rule that no animal who is the least sick is ever allowed to perform or be trained. For this reason, then, the animal was let off; but the next time he absolutely refused to do what was wanted of him, and the fact of trying to make him do so brought about an attack which might have ended very seriously. As it was, De Kenzo got off with a badly torn hand and arm, and was ill for several weeks.
Much has been said, and much more doubtless imagined, by the casual observer about the control which a trainer has over his charges by reason of some magnetic power in his eye. No greater fallacy ever existed. A study of Bonavita’s performance would satisfy any one as to that question. He has twenty-seven lions in the arena at one time, and is constantly turning his back on most of them, walking about among them, and singling out, from time to time, here and there, some one for special acts and tricks. He would require twenty-seven pairs of eyes to control his act if the eye supposition were correct.
It is not the eye,—though that may express the qualities of resoluteness, of wariness, and of patience,—it is the brain that controls a score and more of beasts like that. In association with animals of the feline species, there is an ever present element of danger, no matter how well trained they may be. Every time a trainer turns his back in a cage he risks his life: not a great risk, to be sure, but there is always a chance of death in a stroke. Yet it is impossible to keep the eye on half a dozen animals at once, let alone twenty-seven, and the man must trust to the good temper of his subjects and his own control and good fortune.
Many animals—this is true especially of lions—leap at the bars of a cage in a frenzy of rage the moment a trainer leaves them, as though furious that they had let him out alive, yet the next time he enters they are none the less completely under his dominion. So excellent is the effect of this fury on the thrill-demanding public, that some lions have been trained to do this very trick. But it is an extremely dangerous one, and one which no sensible trainer would dream of teaching his animals.
CHAPTER XII
THE ANIMAL TRAINER—SOME FAMOUS TRAINERS
To secure the right man for the training of wild animals is about the most serious problem that the proprietor of an animal exhibition has to solve; very often the problem remains unsolved.
An animal trainer is a complex and unique person in more ways than one. He is not always superlatively endowed with the characteristics that are attributed to him by most casual observers. Curiously enough, the very element that would seem the most essential is scarcely ever reckoned as his chief virtue. Courage is considered by those who know little about it as one of the first requisites, but a man may have physical and moral courage to an unusual degree and still be quite unfit for a trainer.
The animal trainer may have, and all do have to some extent, the physical courage which is admired, but it is an unconscious courage, and plays such a minor part in a successful performance, that the possession of it is not noted, either by the trainer himself, or by those who know him. There are faculties far higher and far more difficult of cultivation, as well as more rarely possessed, which the animal trainer must have.
First of all are good personal habits. The finest lion-trainers are men of the most absolute personal integrity, who smoke and drink very little, if at all, and who possess self-control to an unusual degree. It is a fact very little known and somewhat difficult to realize by those who have not studied the matter, that in some curious, incomprehensible way, wild animals know instinctively whether men are addicted to bad habits. It is one of the many problems which are beyond the human understanding. For those who are the least bit inclined to drink, or live a loose life, the wild animal has neither fear nor respect.