The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-22 00:00:00

mE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVM

their sensibility. Another, a leopard, black as night,
took the matter very unkindly, and evidently was not
pdisposedad opportunity offered, to eat Lord
Aen. ur "tassel], by way of testifying to his disapproba-
tion of the proceedings of the Council, of which his
lordship is a distinguished member. Balked of this de.
sire, the leopard, after walking round and round its den,
and finding how impotent was ittrage, retired to the far
corner, and there crouched, its black body brought
out in clear relief against the enowwhite walls of the
den, and only the fitful sullen flashing of its green eyes.
showing that it was awake. In the next den a younger
leopard and a lioness cub, the latter looking like a huge
mastiff, dwelt in amity, walking round and round
each other, and evidently much pleased with theirnew
home. Another tiger, a handsome, sleek, lithe creature,
a prssent from Lord Northbrook, which was the first
slipped in the new dens, had one wild moment of exul-
tation. The fourteen dens are divided midway by a
passage, each section being at pleasure opened from
end to end by sliding doors, which, being shut, keep
the dens distinct, and, opened, leave a free passage.
It being intended that this tiger should occupy
the furthest of the dens, all the doors were open so
that it might be coaxed from den to den till it reached
its destination. When it left the trap and found it-
self in the first den it was not slow to perceive the
open door on the right hand aide, and cautiously passed
through. Here was another broad open space with
another door leading out of it—seeing which there
evidently flashed upon what passes with a tiger for
a Mind the thought that here was liberty at last!
With a sudden swift movement the tiger dashed at
the open door into the next cage, and so on through
successive doors and cages with increasing speed, and
eyes that flashed with a sense of freedom, till it found
Itself in the ultimate cage, and before it had quite
mastered the fact that there were no more doors
in front the one in its rear was quickly dropped
down, and the tiger was trapped. A family of pumas,
the lion, of South Africa, were determined to make
the best of affairs, and had quietly settled down in
their new home. But on the whole perhaps, the most
satisfactory tenant was a handsome' Persian lion, who
with two young relatives occupied the end den
furthest removed from that in which the deceived
tiger from Madras was still engaged in walking
round and round in search of the other door. The
Persian lion carries a shaggy mane, and is, in
respect of general appearanoe, much like the one
we are accustomed to see in the pages of Punch in the
companionship of Britannia. On Saturday, shortly
after the flitting hod been accomplished, this lion was
sitting on its haunches, gazing vaguely out through
the window opposite with a look of supreme' com-
placency on its broad, big face, suggestive of the fancy
that it had just heard of the purchase of the Suez
Canal shares.

Later in the day the new tenants were fed, the
meal giving a final touch to the general contentment,
and even in some degree, modifying the wrath of the
black leopard. At the Zoological Gardens a meal for
a leopard consists of seven pound of goat's flesh or horse-
flesh, a lion or tiger requiring eleven pounds. The
course is occasionally varied by a rabbit, which
.is much
appreciated. Mr. Bartlett always bays his horses,
and keeps them for a day or two before killing them, in
order to make sure that they are not suffering from
disease. Two pounds sterling is the average price for a
horse destined as food for the wild beasts; but
sometimes animals of considerably more value are,
for various reasons, sent to the Zoological Gardens.
A man may have a horse, which, though not past
work, is so aged, that he compassionately resolves not
to sell it to drag out a miserable existence in a four-
wheeled cab, and so sends it to the Zoological Gardens,
where he is sure of having it straightway killed.
There are other cases in which a horse may have shown
itself dangerous or treacherous, and the owner may
condemn it to be killed and eaten. In this way Mr.
Bartlett has bought for £2 a horse whose market
value was a hundred guineas the sole condition of the
sale being that the animal should be instantly killed
and its body given to the beasts. There was a few
months ago at work in the Gardens a horse
with a true history that would bring tears to the
eyes of the readers of the Paris Figaro. One day a cab-
man brought to Mr. Bartlett an old grey horse which
he wanted to sell because it was too slow for his work.
It was a good horse, sound in wind and limb, and the
man might have sold it for a fair price, only being much
attached to it, he could not find it in his heart to c‘in-
demn it to the service of a possibly unsympathetic
master. Mr. Bartlett saw that the horse had a
good many years work in it yet, and, while agreeing
to give £2 for it to kill forthwith, he offered
double the price if the owner would agree to sell it for
service in the rubbish cart. On the consideration that
he might see the horse whenever he pleased, and con-
vince himself that it was being well-treated, the
cabman closed with this offer. For six years the horse
worked in the gardens, and, without a single omission
through all that period, the cabman and his wife
visited the gardens every Sunday, and spent some time
in the company of the horse. Last year signs of ap-
proaching dissolution becoming unmistakable the old
grey horse was killed, and the cabman and his wife,
declining the melancholy satisfaction of seeing it eaten
by the lions and tigers, beheld it no more. . . .

The Daily News of Tuesday also gives the following addi.
tional particulars oi the removal of the beasts
"The process of removing the lions and tigers at
the Zoological Gardens to their new residence was
resumed yesterday, hut, as was anticipated, the
task grows more difficult 118 the older beasts come
to be dealt with. The work commenced at eight
o'clock in the morning, and by afternoon only
a couple of jaguars had been induced to leave
their old quarters. Of these one walked into
the trap almost as soon as it was placed in
readiness; the other lingered for upwards of two
hours before it ventured within the strange compart-
ment. Throughout the day the shifting dens were
attached to the dens of a third jaguar and a large tiger.
The former, having one sliding door opened, were
chained to a gap in each of the dens, and an oppor-
tunity was thus afforded to the inmates to walk in,
whereupon a watchful keeper would let fall the
sliding door and the animal would be trapped. In the
case of the second jaguar secured in the morning
an effort was made to hasten its exit by means of
a plank, which was thrust inside the cage. But so
far from being frightened, the jaguar leaped upon the
plank, and with teeth and claws tore it into pieces as
if it had been tinder. No bait was used in the traps
yesterday, that being an expedient which will not be
resorted to till a fair trial has been given to the impulse
of curiosity and the habits of restlessness which have
sufficed to lead the animals hitherto trapped into the
shifting den. By way of preparation, the lions and
tigers stillremaining in their old quarters have been kept
without food since Saturday, and, if necessary, they will
continue to be deprived of meat till such time as they are
driven to find it in the shifting den. Even under these
circumstances the final removal of the lions may prove
a week's work, for a lion can go without food for eight
sr nine days, apparently without feeling more than a
passing discomfort. One in Mr. Bartlett's charge once
went three weeks without tasting food, owing to some
bodily indisposition. At the end of that period it was
induced to take a young rnbbit, and was so gently led
on to the coarser grain of horseflesh.
"When all the lions, tigers, and jaguars have been
cleared out of the old house it will be thoroughly
cleaned, put in good order, and specially prepared for
the reception of the bears, wolves, and hyenas. In the
meanwhile the advantages from a spectacular point of
view of the new building is already fully apparent.
The accommodation both for man and beast is vastly
improved, and whilst the latter pose in lofty roomy
dens, the floor of which is raised to a height that
shows the animals off to the fulled advantage, the
former have a pleasant, well-ventilated gallery to
lounge in. One class of the public to whom the new
arrangements will be an immense boon are the artists
who largely frequent the Gardens to study the wild
animals. Sir Edwin Landseer used to spend many
days in the Zoological Gardens. On one occasion, at
least, he was anxious, and even determined, to spend
a night in the company of the lions, and was it is said,
somewhat huffed because, according to the regula-
tions of the establiehment, and chiefly with an
eye to his own safety, he was not permitted to
remain except in the company of a keeper. It
was in these gardens and in the old lion-house, that
Sir Edwin Landseer found the models for the famous
lions at the base of the monument in Trafalgar.
square. They were a couple of fine South African
lions, but they are dead now, having survived only
a short time the unveiling of the Trafalgar monu-
ment.

on one of the White Star ships. I recollected the name
of the man, and it struck me that this box was the one I
the papers were speaking about. I talked about it to ,
the watchman and told him what I thought. This
was on,Bunday last. On Monday last I asked the bag-
gage-tom man whether the box was there yet, and he
said it was. He wanted it taken right out of the
baegage-room. I went to see Glaseey, and he re-
membered the man and the box distinctly. He said
the man Thomas had gone to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
This ho knew, as, on going off, Thomas had invited
Glassey to step up to the hotel to have a glass of
wine with him. I went up to the Fifth Avenue
Hotel, told them what I wanted, and, on turning
back to the register on the 21th of October, the
name W. K. Thomas, of Dresden was found. The
clerk remembered him, and described the man enough
for me to know it was the same person. I called on
Superintendent Walling, at the police head quarters,
and told him what _I hattfonnd out. He instructed me
to go to the Bureau of Combustibles of the Fire De-
partment, and get them to send a man to inspect the
box: -I did so, it being then nearly five o'clock yester-
day afterneon. They promised to send a man round to look
at it. This morning Pennell, the dock superintendent,
said he did not want the box in the baggage-room any
longer' and I carried it out at twelve o'clock noon,
when there were only a few about. One of the
coopers on the pier, Kelly, and myself took the box
out into the street before the pier, where it could do
no harm to open it, and we did it pretty carefully.
Nobody who knew anything about it would come
near. The superintendent came in and looked at us
once or twice, and I kept every one else away. The
outer black oil skin was taken off altogether, and then
there was a common pine box. We loosened the steel
strap enough to get the top of. Below this was a steel
plate and in the middle was a hole. By putting a finger
in the hole the plate was lifted. It was the top of a
steel box. In this were about a dozen straw packages
such as come round bottles, with a lot of coarse brown
paper. At the bottom of the metal box we found two
bags of shot—ordinary drop shot, and a second box.
This rather frightened us, and neither of us cared about
opening it. This little box was about 10in. by Bin. and
about 4in. deep. With the bags of shot it just filled up
the bottom of the big box. It was wrapped in brown
paper and tied about with string. On taking off the
string and paper a wooden box was seen. The lid was
held on by four small screw, one at each corner.
Taking these out with the greatest care, two more bags
of shot were found in the little box, and this was all.
Not a speck of writing or printed paper of any kind was
found. I then took the box with all that was in it to the
police station. There *ere four 251 b. bags of the shot.'
"At the hotel the register contained the autograph,
written in a bold, dashing hand, 'W. K. Thomas,
Dresden.' Thomas was assigned to room 407, on the
fifth floor, and apparently gave but little trouble, as
the hotel people merely remember that he arrived on
the 24th, left on the 28th, and paid his bill.

"The ship's papers contain no description nor entry
of the box, as it was considered personal baggage and
put into the specie-room because of the request made
by Thomas. Before leaving Liverpool, Thomakbad
made application to several marine insurance com-
panies for a policy on the box which he-
said contained the sum of 30,060 dole. in
specie. However, none of the companies were in-
clined to take the risk. The weight of the box and con-
tents was just about that of 30,000 dols. gold, and the
size was that commonly employed for the shipment of
specie. The plan of Thomas, as judged by the police,
is that the box found was that on which the insurance
was to be placed. Among his personal baggage the
infernal machine was to be shipped while he stepped
off at Queenstown and remained behind. Failing to
get the insurance policy, and having a passage paid,
he came on to America, returning again within a few
days. He seemed to be in no lack of funds, and the
officers are now endeavouring to ferret out his doings
while in this city, and to discover who were his asso-
ciates, if he had any."

make for ourselves the strength of our motives by the
degree in which we fix our attention upon one motive
rather than another. When we want to withdraw our
minds from some feeling we ought not to entertain,
we should not say, "I must not think of this," for,then
our attention will certainly be directed to it, but "I
will not think of that." We ought to' turn our minds
upon something that is attractive and worthy, and,
by the fixation of the attention upon that, to strengthen
its attraction for us, and proportionately weaken the
attractiveness of the other. How the will dominates
the cerebrum he could not tell, but we have daily ex-
perience that it does, and our own experience and our
own thoughts and feelings are far the mot certain of
all experience. The knowledge that we have the power
of self-direction is the fundamental fact in our whole
nature. " I am," "I ought," "I can," "I will" are the
four words which man can say, and the saying of which
divides him from the lower animals; for though a dog
has a sense of duty, it is only the sense of doing what
his master likes. We men reach the higher aspect of
moral right and wrong. "I can" implies "I can do
as I ought." Therefore, although he went entirely
with his friends in asserting the automatism of the
animal and mental mechanism of man, he held that
• was not all. The state of sleep and somnambulism,
all the curious induced states of somnamhulism, are
so completely divided from the state of the man who
has his mind "well in hand," as it may be said, that
he could not see how it was possible to deny the fact
that we have a controlling and directing will.