23. MONSIEUR PERNELET & HIS CROCODILES
Monsieur Auguste Pernelet was born in the 1860s. He became a traveller and naturalist, spending a good deal of time in Egypt and in the French colonies in North Africa. He took an interest in the Nile crocodiles, and imported a number of these animals into France to keep in his private aquarium. One day, a showman came to visit him, being greatly impressed by Pernelet’s ability to control these fierce beasts. Pernelet even dared to climb into the aquarium to feed his pets a meal of fresh meat from his hand, as if they were a litter of puppies. Pernelet was offered £300 to show his crocodiles on the Paris stage, where he became very popular indeed. He went on to tour the provinces with his tank full of crocodiles. Once, in Algiers, he was attacked by a large crocodile when sitting on a chair in the aquarium, and lost his left forefinger, but this incident did not shatter his belief in the inherent docility of the crocodilian tribe.
In August 1902, M. Pernelet came to the Palace Theatre in London, to perform with his crocodiles. The animals were imported from Le Havre in their large glass and steel aquarium, and wheeled along Shaftesbury Avenue on a large trolley. Since no door to the theatre was wide enough to admit the aquarium, the writhing reptiles were carried inside one by one, muzzled by M. Pernelet; since it took nine strong men to carry the largest of them, the workforce was quite exhausted once the aquarium had been reassembled onstage. Even the blasé Londoners, used to various sensational shows and stunts, were astounded by Pernelet and his weird pets. He wore a pair of heavy seaboots to prevent the crocodiles from appropriating either of his feet, but otherwise used no protection at all. He held a chop of mutton between his teeth, and had a crocodile take it from him, fortunately without including any part of his face in the bite. He carried a smaller crocodile on his back, and ended the show by riding on the back of the largest specimen of all. A punning journalist was reminded of the ‘Young Lady of Niger’, of tiger-riding limerick infamy, but the dashing dompteur did not end up ‘inside’, emerging from the tank alive and well, to tumultuous applause.
M. Pernelet remained in London until early October 1902, performing with his crocodiles many times without any untoward incidents. He later set up an Aquarium Indo-Africain in Brussels, well stocked with crocodiles, caimans and alligators. In January 1906, when performing with a circus in the Boulevard Jamar, he was bitten hard when feeding his pets, and lost two fingers of his right hand. Undaunted, he kept performing for several years to come. The last we know of him is that in 1910 there was a fire at the circus where he was performing in Brussels; the indestructible M. Pernelet escaped unscathed, although two of his crocodiles perished in the flames, to be honoured with a postcard showing their charred remains.