George's Notes
One of the characters who used to be a common enough site on our streets in the early part of this century was an individual from Eastern Europe with his performing bear. Dressed in a wide-brimmed hat, silver-buttoned weskit, baggy trousers and Hessian boots, he used to put his charge (a European brown bear tightly muzzled and tethered to a strong leash) through certain motions which included rearing on its hind legs and gyrating.
Miss Janet Fishwick who used to visit Rochdale Schools and lecture of behalf of the R.S.P.C.A., once to us at Greenbank, told us that bears used for these performances were usually caught as cubs in the Carpathians and subjected to questionable treatment by their ‘trainers’. Fortunately, sights such as this are no longer familiar on our streets.
George Mainwaring
