Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1864-03-12
The Mysteries Of M en- axeries.

nsnageris The undertaking, to be sue.
cessful, requires . peculiar knowledge
which il ;stbs possession of very few.
The capital invested in the Van Amburgh
collection, the Oldest and only complete
meragerie in this country, and which
many thousands of our citizens have
visited is not less than $3.50, 900, 1t con-
tains two hundred animals and employs,
when on its travels, through the country,
not less than ninety.four linen, and one
hundred and thirty.four horses. When
In travelling order the whole collection
can move at an average of eighteen miles
a day, and on summers tour makes
circuit Of not less than three thousand
miles. The daily expenses when travel.
ing, are not under 5000. The animals
are subject to various diseases; they die,
and that at such rate that in the pre-.
sent collection there are bu: six animals
which were in it sixty years ago. With
few exceptions the menagerie is entirely
renewed once every Eve years The pro.
prietors are constantly purchasing new
animals :; they have agents in various
parts of the world; and the expenses of
such renewals may be guessed, when we
say that the beasts added to the menaeerie
now On Broadway, since last spring. cost
thirty thousand dollars. To spend such
sums judieiously, to buy only healthy
animals, likely to live, and to keep them
| in good condition, requires experience
only gained in many years Of course
the life OF the lion, the Bengal tiger, or
giraffe can not be insured. The most
eager life Insurance company will not
take such risks. The finest animals in
the collection may die any day and thou
sands of dollars are lost.
The price Of lion or any other ami
nal varies generally. Sometimes the
lion market is glutted. A fine Bengal
tiger has been sold in London for two
hundred dollars, but tho common price of
a healthy pair Of young lions is thirty.
fve hundred dollars. The three polar
bears now in the Broadway collection
cost the proprietors four thousand dollars.
Most Of the animals caught for mem
ageries are first taken to England. In
London there are two or three animal
brokers who make i, their business to re.
ceive and sell on commission any thing
from an elephant 10 ring tailed monkey.
The finest giraffe ever brought to this
country was caught by man named
Clayton, an American, who went to Africa
for the purpose, and was gone eighteen
months on that business. Hannibal, the
largest elephant ever exhibited, has been
in this country thirty three years. When
he was first brought hi,her he was bought
by an enterprising butcher in the Bowery,
who kept him in horse stable for year
before he was exhibited. He was bought
on speculation, and the unlucky butcher
lost BY him. He was afterwards purchas-
ed BY Van Amburgh and has been in this
collection many years.
Lions, and all other animals of the cat
kind suffer when imported into this coun.
try, from kind Of consumption. They
~heeze, lose flesh, their lungs become dis
eased, and they finally waste away and
die. When one Of theso great beasts
dies, he is submitted to the faculty, and
it 10 a pleasant evidence that the proprie.
tors are not merely showmcn," but have
An intelligent interest in these wonders
Of nature, tha. they have for many years
| contributed their defunct specimens to
the collection Of the Philadelphia acade-
my OF natural sciences, in whose halls
may be found at this day some skeletons
Of lions, tigers, and other animals, famous
in their day.
In the subdivision Of labor one man
takes charge Of four cages, to clean, feed,
and attend upon all the wants Of the oc>
cupants; the desh eating animals are but
fed once day, and not ut all on Sunday.
The elephant seems to. browse all the day
long. None but good beef il fed, and it
must not have the slightest grain Of salt
upon It. Water is given four or five
times day. A full grown lion eats from
from fifteen to twenty pounds Of meat
per day. An elephants ratiens are three
hundred pounds Of hay and two bushels
Of oats per day when he is travelling
whom standing still he gets no oats, but
N additional hundred pounds Of hay
The elephants lie down when they 20 to
sleep. Two barrels Of water moisten each
elephants daily hay.
Not unfrequsntly ',animul. bring forth
young. Some dozen Of lions have been