New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-11-09
B4RK IND BITE.

TO n new sensation. He discovered the Gorilla.
This beast, as he described it, was one of the
most dreadful monsters ever let loose upon
miserable world The old horned Devil of our
grandfathers that now happily, or uEhappDy,
as the reader may think best, is decided to be
an extinct creature, was mere tame, purrlng,
pussy-cat compared with this inhabitant of the
African Jingle. The new conner. If we were to
believe NJ. Du Chaillu, had all the dcformities
and hideOus traits of our old friend Satan, with
enough additional ingenious, ugly features,
both of mind and person, to set up fifty new
Tract Societies each with peculiar style OF
fend warranted TO have 10 resemblance to the
fiend of any other establishment We were
about to attempt slight description OF the
animal. as set forth in the animated pages OF
NJ. Du Chalu. But we remember that among
our subscribers are soft-hcarted, timorous wo-
men. beardless boys, and callow infants, and
we dread the result upon such a mass of SEN
sibility of exhibiting the plain, unyarnished
tail of the gorilla without warning.
1t was neither To be wished nor expected
that anybody would be mad enough to attempt
to catch gorilla alive, much less to bring him,
when caught, into the very midst of populous
city. / Even Du Chaillu, we believe, never
attempted to do anything more than bring home
a piece of the skin of one of them who had
died of starvation after having killed and
eaten every living thing-men, women, and
children included-in a district several thousand
square miles in extent; and if such hero as he
could only accomplish this how could any one
hope to do morcl However man is n creature
born to trouble other people as the sparks to fly
- Il I..fff
that gorilla had been caught, bought by Mr..
Barnum, and, after world of difficulties, de
posted in his Museum, where he was to be
seen with the 100000 other curosities, and the
moral plays, for twenty-five cents We were
told dozen stories of the strength and malig-
nant temper of this indomitable beast ON his
way to the Museum. How he had torn the
mast out of the ship, eaten the ruddcr, banged
hole in her bottom with one stamp OF ms
detestable foot, got up steam with the bones
Of the captain, mate, and crew. whose flesh he
had devoured for breakfast, picked his teeth
with a marlinc spike, and waded ashore on an
uninhabited island, in the midst of fury OF n
hurricane, and had only been caught by the
whole population turning out and surrounding
him with lassos and guns.
We half believed, and sent our reporter,
with twenty five cents for ticket, and ten
cents for omnibus fare TO get a look at the
devouring monster and tell us the truth about
him. He did so. and We blush for the result.
After making his way, with fear and trembling,
but with loyal determination, through the
crowd that blocked up the sidewalk the step,
the capacous hall, and the three first floors of
the stately edilice, n crowd that every five
minutes, hearing the cry He's loose
"bewaren fell into uncomfortable panic, and
swayed TO and fro in blind bewilderment
and fainting, voiceless horror, he made his way
directly to the front of the cage that held the
Awful Despot of the Tropics, and, mastering
all his courage, gave one bold and manly look
at the thing. TO his great astOnishment and
equally great relief, he saw no gorilla at all,
but plain, black monkey, whom, if he was
not greatly mistaken, he had often fed with
apple-cOres and pennies after the creature had
gone through his various mcouth mOps and
moves to the music of his masters hand
organ. He even thought the creature himself
looked up with a faint smile of recognition in
his faded peanut eyes, as he saw before
him the one being who, i'll cold
and heartless world, had taken pity on
him and, minstered to his few ;and simple
wants. There he sat, melancholy picture
care-worn, flea-bitten hungry; now playing abb
stractedly with his useless tail, now looking
with a blasG dsconsOate air at the aimless flies
that crawled over his white washed cage, now
scratching himself as if he had been struck
with an idea, then giving it up, and walking
back and forth with a maudlin air, and finally
crOuching down in one corner with an express
sion Of pity and contempt for the swetering
crowd of human beings who wasted their time
and money for the sake of seeing gorilla,
and were ready to faint at the imaginary
threats and ferocty of plain organ grinders
monkey.
For some days past-fOr some months, in
deed-the newspapers have been full of terrible
rumOrs of the awful things that Mr.. johnson
is gOing'to do, some time or other! How he is
going to act as if he were Cromwell, Julius
Caesar, and the two NapOleons-the Great and
the Little-rOllcd into Onel How he is
going to dispense Congress-. and, backed by
Swann's militia, to say nothing of Swami him
SELF put down the North, put up the South,
and ride to glory over the PROSTATE bodies of
the majority of his countrymen. How he is rs
mad as he can be; how, to use the childrens
phrase, he is "hoppng mad" and means to
show us that he is not to be trined with How
we are to have a first-cass coup d6tat,'
whatever that may be, and how, in a few
weeks, A. Johnson the First land we may add,
of our own knowledge, the last'), is to wade