The best men of the profession I have ever known have all assured me
that the stupidest animal is quicker to detect the slightest relaxation
of a trainer's watchfulness than is the keenest trainer to observe the
abnormal and hostile mood of his pupils. For this reason no trainer or
performer should be allowed to enter a cage unless he is in a normal
frame of mind--sober, in full command of all his faculties, and not
subject to any distracting influence.
Most of the tragedies of the profession are chargeable to a
disobedience to this rule. The unfailing brute instinct at once detects
the fact that the trainer has let down the bars of his mind, and then
comes the long-delayed attack!
Never do I tire of watching a good trainer work his animals, especially
those fresh from their native wilds and full of snap and spirit. What
sport more splendid and royal can man imagine than that of placing his
life in imminent peril for the purpose of putting a wild beast--a
creature far his superior in strength, in swiftness of movement, and in
all-round fighting power--in complete subjection to his will! It is
truly a sport for a king!