the proprietor's attitude changed, and at once all Batty's bills announced, in the most uproariously large letters possible, the appearance, nightly, of "John Cooper, aged 12, the youngest lion-tamer in the world."
With Batty's Mr. Cooper stayed till of age, and, after three years with Mrs. Edmonds's menagerie, began a long Continental career by accepting an offer of Herr Renz, a well-known German showman. For seventeen years he wandered about the Continent, with one menagerie and another, until he knew Europe all over as well as his native Birmingham. His reputation on the Continent was, and still is, immense—indeed, perhaps greater than that in his own country. In the first place, the best part of his professional life has been spent in Continental countries, and in the second, wild beast performances, for some unexplained reason or another, are, and always have been, more popular in those countries than in England. The English lion-tamer was everywhere treated like a prince, and in the course of his travels made the personal acquaintance of all the "crowned heads"—in a much more intimate sense than falls to the lot of most showmen. Victor Emmanuel struck up quite a personal friendship with Cooper, and the tamer always speaks of that fine old King with the very highest admiration and respect. The King was a great lover of animals, and had a very fine private collection of his own. Cooper's animals were generally his own property, and, a fine litter of lion cubs being born while he was showing at Florence, he presented the newcomers to the King, who was delighted at the acquisition, and invited Mr. Cooper to inspect his own collection. These animals were of course in a perfectly wild state; and when the tamer expressed his willingness to go among them at once, and, if he pleased, perform with them, the King's astonishment was great. Go among them, however, Cooper did, and handled them as they had never been handled before. At the conclusion of the performance, the King shook the tamer most heartily by the hand, and having heard that he was a smoker, presented him with a handsome pipe from his own mouth. This pipe is now Mr. Cooper's most treasured possession. After this he became quite an honoured visitor at the Royal palaces.
"Victor Emmanuel presented him with a handsome pipe from his own mouth."
Not long after his departure from Florence, while working northward, the tamer experienced a run of ill-luck in the loss by death, in quick succession, of several of his most valued lions, and this loss was repaired, as soon as it came to the ears of Victor Emmanuel, by a present of four of the finest and largest lions from the King's collection. Nor did Victor Emmanuel's generosity end here: camels, a bear, and two elephants following as occasional presents in after years. These proofs of the regard of il Re Galantuomo Mr. Cooper values higher than any that he has received, although they are not the only Royal gifts which came to his share. Among other things, there is a very splendid gold lion in the form of a brooch, studded with diamonds, the present, accompanied by an autograph letter, of the Queen of Holland. The old German Emperor William took great personal interest in the performances at Berlin, and witnessed them again and again, as also did Prince Bismarck.
At the time of the Court performances at St. Petersburg, which were especially encouraged by the present Czar, then the Czarewitch, an awkward accident occurred.
