The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-01-03
WILD BEASTS.
From the New Tom Time

/
across q monopolist p,tf' et simple. II
is trader on large scale, but Is ger
orally very careful not to handle tilt
J live stock in which he deals; nor, fo
that matter, do any of his employees
! His business is the Importation Of ever
variety Of wild beast and bird, from n
elephant to a guinea-pig, from "a
ostrich to Java sparrow. Does th
proprietor of menagerie lose hi
elephant, he repairs to this gentleman
repository. He states whether he wou1,
prefer an African or an Asiatic elephant
He gives his order according to hi
fancy, and in due time the animal az
rives. and is Immediately shipped t
j whittier his new owner caraTaT -,...
) happen to be. If all African lion i
wanted, a dispatch is at once sent t.
Capetow1l; if horned horses, girafEcs, o.
Ihinoceroses are in demand orders al
at once sent out to ship to New York al
that can be bought or found. The fac
is, this gentleman has some fifteen EN-
ployes, who are scattered over Africt
and Asia, whose sole business consists
in collecting rare wild animals for him
So complete are all his arrangements
that none are found to compete will
him in the business. He has the entire
trade to himself, and supplies every
ffi6rlaeefie in this country with such
animals as they need from time to time.
| There are over thirty menageries travel
ing about the country every year.
Every year they lose q certain percent
age of their animals from natural death
or by accident. Some of the more rare
animals are generally delicate, and
never become aeclimatized, consequent
ly do not live long. This makes them
very costly. Others, again, like the
giraffe, too, is so awkwardly built that
1t does not lie down with it's legs under
it, like others of the antelope tribe;
consequently, If the vessel rolls at sea
it loses it's balance, is swung against the
side of it's cage, and frequently breaks
its long, ungainly neck. This risk runs
up the price of giraffes to high figure,
| A year or two ago well-knOwn show
man who had imported four giraffes
through the gentleman's agency, but
who took the sea risk OH himself, lost
them all on the voyage. He could not
now get four equally good specimens
under $25. 900. But when a cargo does
come safely across the profit to the i'm
porter are very large.
1t is great mistake to suppose that
airy of these animals are captured when
full grown. A full grown lion, could
he be trapped and put in a cage, would
soon pine away and die A full grown,
wild elephant is the most savagely
treacherous of animals. Even when
captured young and trained in a circus,
the elephant betrays those Unborn
qualities more and more as he grows
older. 1t is only of late years that
elephants have been imported from
Affiaa, Many persons will recollect p
T. BarrNitn's advertisement OF the first
one-a dwarf-Thieh was to appear in
his menagerie. The animal, however,
died on the voyage, and was conse-
quently never seen i'll this country. Our
monopo1ist dealer in wild beasts soon
after obtained four young elephants
from Africa and fetai1ed them here to
different showmen at about $8, 600
apiece. They were "babies." The
elephant is an animal of very slow
growth. When five years old 1t does
not stand more than three feet high;
and one out of the four alluded to
above was only thirty inches high.
They were, however, q perfect God-send
to showmen in the way of startling
novelties. One, the thirty-inch one,
was coolly exhibited as a dwarf. An
other was shown as an offspring OF an
old female elephant, which had been IN
this cottntry years before the youngster
first saw the light i'll his native African
Jungle. Three of these young elephants
are still alive in this country, but they
have grown out of all knowledge, es-
pecially the dwarf. The showmen who
exhibited the young calf asserted to
have been born here made great hit,
as it is pretty generally known that
elephants will not breed in this country
Lions breed freely. In fact, there are
few menageries which do not have a
litter of cubs every year. But the
mothers always destroy or desert them,
and they are obliged to be brought up
on milk given to them in bottle, sln1-
lar to that used in rearing babes by
hand. The hippopotamus has also been
known to breed i'll the Geological
Gardens in London. Like the lioness,
she destroys her young as soon as they
are born; but the attendants in London
did once succeed in rescuing young
one from its mother, and in bringing it
up by hand. But animals brought up
in this artificial way, and born i'll a con-
fined cage, never grow up to be such
fine specimens as those born in a state
of nature.
AS a general thing all animals are
captured when young by the natives,
acting under instructions from the
white agents. If lions are wanted the
natives sally up the country, and either
kill the parents and then secure the
cubs, or track the lioness to her den,
and then, waiting till she goes hunting
for food, seize the opportunity of steal
ing the cubs. In capturing elephants
they drive them, old and young, into an
inclosure, ham-string the old ones so as
to disable them from protecting their
calves, and than easily secure the young
ones. An African lion commands
higher price in the market than an
Asiatic lion on account of his more
noble and commanding appearance.
His mshe is much thicker and longer
than that Of his Asiatic brother, and is
black. The quality and length of the
name is the test of the value of lions.
An African lion sells for 1000; an
Asiatic only $4,000 Royal Bengal
tigers will command $4,000 a pair;
Brazilian only $4,000 pair. Camels
and dromedaries bring about 81 200
apiece, but white camels have been sold
at 81, 500 each. A good ostrich can be
bought for about $400; elephants from
Sc, 600 to IS, 600; horned horses $50 call
ed, though they are really only a varie-
ty of antelope from 81, 800 upward.
The importation of animals is only
branch of the business; but it is in this
case very extensive, for the last fifteen
years the value of the animals imported
having averaged over $100,0O0 year.
Of course, the needs of every menag-
erie are known; aud when one wants to
sell surplus animal or two, or to re-
place them with finer specimens, they
are almost invariably sold direct to this
gentleman, or through him, on COM
mission, to the proprietors of other
menageries. A very fair menagerie
may be stocked for $50, 900; but some
few of the giant shows valuc their stock
of animals at two and three times that
figure. The aggregate value of all the
wild animals in the different caravans
in this country must approximate g.
500, 900. In no other country in the
world are there so many kept in con-
finement. The show business is essen
TALLY American, and, rs 81 general
thing is a very 1ll.ofitahla ono