With the lions of Mr. Myers’ Hippodrome the name of John Cooper is inseparably associated. This foremost animal trainer in the world, was born at Birmingham in 1838, and entered upon his present career under the auspices of George Batty (brother of the Batty of hippodromatic fame of 1851), who was then travelling on the Continent with his circus and menagerie. Cooper commenced lion-taming at the early age of twelve, and has followed the profession of trainer of wild animals without cessation till the present time. He remained with George Batty about fifteen years, and at the expiration of that time bought some lions, and started on his own account. In 1866-67 he met Mr. Myers, who ultimately bought Cooper’s lions, and engaged the services of their owner at a salary unprecedented in the profession. The secret of Cooper’s success is his love of animals, allied with a temperament in which fear is no element, and a calm sense of superiority which is felt by his brute servants no less than by himself.

Some remarkable instances of his immediate ascendency over the fiercest animals are on record. When Lucas, the lion-tamer, was killed by his own lions, he left a wife and child with no other resource than the ownership of the fierce brutes. M. Arnauld, manager of the hippodrome where the tragedy took place, gave a benefit performance for the widow, and Cooper volunteered to enter the cage of the lions, whom he had never before seen, and who had never before seen him, and to perform with them, a task which he accomplished to the astonishment of all beholders. Victor Emmanuel of Italy—one who, like Cooper, never quailed before danger—found a kindred spirit in the lion-tamer, and has honoured him with special marks of approbation; one of his presents being two splendid lions, which form part of the troupe with which Cooper performs. Four camels and an elephant are also gifts of the soldier-king. John Cooper has trained, while with Mr. Myers, 42 lions, 16 elephants, 25 camels, besides monkeys, bears, hyÆnas, and other animals. It is a popular fallacy that trainers of such animals begin their task while their pupils are in infancy. Cooper does not commence with lions till they are five years old; only in one case, that of the King of Italy’s lions, did he begin at four-and-a-half years. Whatever and however fierce the animals presented, he enters their cage without hesitation and without emotion, at the first interview. In the presence of his ferocious protÉgÉs a remarkable change takes place in the demeanour of Cooper, and it is difficult to realise that the quiet, mild, and gentle individual with whom one has been recently conversing is the same person with the stern, energetic, and commanding figure, with the bright and penetrating eyes, before which quail the fiercest of the beasts, and whose iron will renders them compliant with his every nod and beck.

We have before alluded to Cooper’s fondness for animals. One incident is worth recording, as illustrating both that trait and his dauntless intrepidity. While the lions were one day engaged in their performances, springing over the head of their master, bounding from one side of the cage to the other, a favourite lioness failed to clear the movable barrier which the trainer uses to separate the animals when necessary, or, as in the present instance, as a kind of hurdle over which they are to leap in traversing the cage. The impulse of the spring forced apart the iron bars of the barrier, and the head and fore-part of the poor lioness were fixed as in a vice, at the height of some feet from the floor of the cage. The situation was somewhat critical, as Cooper had around him the other lions, which were evidently excited by the fix of their companion; but, nothing daunted, he attempted to release the prisoner by manual force. She was, however, too firmly fixed; and Cooper called for a mallet, a lever, and other tools, with which, unheeding his ferocious and excited attendants—against whom he for the time had no defence—he separated or broke the bars, and released the lioness from her painful position.

Mr. Myers relates an account of a desperate fight between a Senegal and Nubian lion, which, in the absence of Cooper, he and his people vainly tried to stop by red-hot iron bars, by throwing several pounds of snuff into their eyes, and other unsuccessful means. The fight resulted in the death of the larger lion before Cooper could arrive to separate the furious beasts; but, on his arrival, he at once entered the cage, severely chastised the victor, and attaching ropes to the body of the dead lion, dragged it out of the cage without molestation.

Mr. Myers’ experience of a quarter of a century with lions tells him that, contrary to popular belief, lions born in captivity are less intelligent and much more fierce and nimble than those born in a state of liberty. The victor in the above-related fight was born in captivity. But whether born in the great forests of the tropics or the narrow cages of the travelling menagerie, all fierce animals are alike cowed by the magnetic power of John Cooper, and Mr. Myers’ longstanding challenge of £100,000 to be awarded to any lion-tamer in the world who will perform the same feats as John Cooper is still unaccepted.