bore till he died of consumption about fifteen
months ago. Maccomo was the most daring man
amcmg lions and tigers I ever saw. At first he
never drank anything stronger than coffee, but he
always believed he would meet a violent death. He
was fearfully torn over and over again, but not
killed. It was riskier for him than for a white man,
if it be true, as they say, that the beasts can nose
a black man, and are mad after the flavour of his
fiesh.
These are about the leading lion-kings I remem-
ber, but there have been many others of less note.
As a rule, drink is what plays the devil with them
all, and you can hardly wonder at it. Ah! so you
have heard about lion-queens too, have youl Well,
I can tell you all about them also. The first lion-
queen came out in Joe Hilton's circus, at the sug-
gestion of "Kitty" Lee, to counterbalance the attrac-
tion of Crockett as a lion-king, and he proposed
that Hilton's daughter should come out as the lion-
queen, as she had previously been in the den with
the lion. He proposed that she should appear
under the name of "Madame Pauline de Vere, the
Lady of Lions," and so she did. I remember her
first appearance quite well. It was at Stepney Fair;
and didn't she cut a dash on the platform in front
of the menagerie before going into the deni At



LIONS AND LION-TAMING. 1 53

this time Mr. Wombwell's menagerie — as was under
Edmonds' management — had an excellent group of
wild beasts, and Miss Helen Chapman (now Mrs.
