The star shows is, of performance in these that put on by the bear. which has be taught to dance on its hind legs and to wield a spear with a dexterity little short of that of its human collaborators. The bear employed is invariably a Manchurian black bear, characterized by its shiny black coat of rather long hair, a heavy mane on the sides of the neck and a broad white The lot of the bear cub so captured is a sad one. With an iron ring in its nose it is led away, sold in the nearest town to a dealer and resold again to some showman, who sets about training, it—en unhappy period of kicks and blows and starvation till it learns te perform the tricks required of it. Thereafter, year in and year out, it is led along China's dusty highways, always by its super-sensitive nose, and made to perform before crowds of people who are not above adding to its misery by tormenting it with pokes and digs in the ribs. Offers of food are refused by the showman, since it is by keeping the bear hungry and giving it mouthfuls of food at intervals in the course of its performances that they make it do the latter properly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.