President Roosevelt remarked, after witnessing his performance, that he had never seen or heard of anything like it, and that he admired the man’s pluck, for he was a hero. General Miles wrote from the War Office, and said:
“I was particularly impressed with Bonavita and his monster grouping of twenty-seven lions. Such control of these noble creatures as was shown is truly remarkable.”
The first impression one gets of Captain Bonavita is that of a refined and courteous gentleman. He is peculiarly reserved, and it is with the greatest reluctance that he can ever be induced to talk about himself, but he is never tired of talking about his lions.
He is of an extremely sensitive, highly strung nature, and although many feel that his nerves must be of steel, there are times when the terrible strain is more than unusually severe, and he retires to his own quarters completely played out. For it is absurd to think that a man who does such a risky thing as he does is never nervous. He realizes his danger as much as any one, and he has had cause to do so many times.
His chief comforts seem to be his cat and dog. The dog, a magnificent Great Dane named Pluto, is devoted to his master, and after a specially trying time, when he seems quite unable to speak to any one else, the master talks to him. The cat, named Tramp, has no pedigree whatever, and is as commonplace-looking an animal as can be found in any back yard. But Captain Bonavita is almost as devoted to him as to the dog, and when the cat sits on the dog’s back the man who can control twenty-seven lions is perfectly satisfied.
I have spoken of some of his accidents in other chapters. In all Captain Bonavita has had over fifty bad ones, but these have not prevented his going among the lions again at the very first opportunity. To use his own words: “A man does not refuse to go into battle because he has been hurt.”
Another trainer who has become famous through her daring and wonderful control of the most treacherous of wild beasts is Mme. Louise Morelli. She is a Frenchwoman, and talks to her jaguars, leopards, and panthers in French, which they appear to understand quite as well as any other language, as it is not so much what is said as the tone of voice in which the words are spoken.
MADAME MORELLI AND HER JAGUARS, PANTHERS, AND LEOPARDS
Mme. Morelli is a small woman and rather frail, but her nerve and quiet self-possession are truly wonderful. Leopards, panthers, and jaguars are noted for their stealthy, sly ways, and their deceit and treachery. They are most difficult to train and subdue, and can never be relied upon. These cringing big cats are the most alert fiends by nature; they have none of the nobility of the lion, none of the aloofness of the tiger. They are cowardly and sly, and are always watching an opportunity to spring on the trainer’s back on the slightest provocation, so that the training of them is more perilous than work with any other animals. And yet this small woman goes into the arena with five of them, makes them go through various acts and manœuvers, and finally sits down among them and allows one or two of them to lick her hands, and even to take them in their treacherous mouths.