Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-21
Barnum's Greatest.


 fhe Curtain-The Big Elephants and
 the little Eiephants-Ansvvering to
 Roll Call-Fiayfui Prince-Death of
 Fine Ostrich-Rarnum for IsS2-Eu-
 rope Next Year.
 The winter quarters of Barnum, Bailey & l great show are, as is generally 1 known, in Bridgeport one of the most en- terprising cities of Connecticut, and other wise immortalized as the homo of the great l American snowman, F. T. show must be l an immense one which has daily average expense of $4, 800 and represents three mil lion dollars in hard cash" The coming tour is to be the last one in America for the present, as in 1883 the great show will be ex- hibited in Europe. The winter quarters give some idea of the vast scale of Barnum's show business. On Thursday, under the ss- cort of Barnum's press agent, Mir. D. s. Thomas we paid visit to this now famous spot. Many New Haven people have noticed the buildings, which are situated near the them can be seen from the cars. A vast sum of money is here represented. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare and ex- pensive animals are quartered In the main building, including twenty elephants, eleven large ones and nine small The large elephants are Hebe Juno, Chieftain, Prince, Fritz, Clip, sy, Pallas Mandarin, Albert. Pilot, Queen; the small fellows are Topsy, Colum- bia, (the last, the only elephant as yet born in America, Adonis, Venus, Memo, Romeo Lena Nan, Hippo Sabe. Romeo is an Af- rican elephant, the remainder are from Hin dostan and Burmah The heaviest weigh nearly five tons and the smallest one or two tons, which is one reason why the keepers prefer not to get stepped on by them. Dur ing our visit, one of the elephants, while whisking his trunk around at companion elephant accidentally and inadvertently hit one of the assistant keepers, giving him such whack that for some time the keeper was badly blinded and stunned This was only in play and the elephant thereby es- caped severe fogging. The elephants, big and little, are exceedingly willing to receive palatable favors of any kind, evincing par tiality for candy, peanuts, cakes, etc, thus maintaining the we'll known reputation of the well regulated elephant. Their regular diet is, however, hay and oats, and they seem well disposed tolerably contented happy family of elephants, except when meal time is delayed. When that hour arrives they are all anxious to be served to oats and straw first, like the boys at a boys club dinner. The happiest elephant in the lot is Prince, a great big fellow who seems full of disposition to frolic, and whose ebullitions of playfulness are quite amusing, and if such bulky animal can be said to laugh, Prince certainly does it. This big elephant is always very thankful to any body who will tickle his nose, or that part of him where the nose ought to be, and he will wiggle, twist, squirm, and get down on one knee and twist his legs into all sorts of funny and outlandish positions while the tickling goes on. For variety he will make a pass for visitors with his trunk, finging it out and drawing it back, inviting play in as conaical manner as is possible for so bulky and mex pressive creature. Twenty elephants all in one immense room is cheerful thing, espe- cially when they join in a sort of wild pan demoniac chorus which is totally unlike any thing offered by Theodore Thomas, or Gill nore's band, or anything in the oratorio line and seem loud enough to literally bring down the roof. The elephants are drilled daily in all sorts of funny tricks, which will highly amuse and interest all kinds of people, little and big, next season. The head keeper, Mir. Arstlingstall, is an adept in teaching the ele-
 
 in thought and action. Under his care the elephants progress rapidly in their studies, and mind their p's and q's when the lesson IS on the docket or they hear from MT. A. The great elephant Queen is in an apartment by herself She is about to become proud and ly important, in which course she is upheld, receiving no end of attentions and comforts and is given her own way in everything ex- eept her liberty. She is entirely satisfied, ap- parently, to live alone in her own apartment, and manifests decided repugnanoe to all elephants except one baby fellow, whom she allows to look at her and come within caressipg distance. One end of her apartment is open so she can see and learn all the news of the day transpiring among the other elephants in the building which are all in her view. The little elephants were called into the ring and put through series of tricks and 8 real mill tary drill during our stay, answering to their names as correctly and promptly as lot of children, and behaving with wonderful do- cility all except one rebellious follow who would raise his snout in the air and yell, feel ing lazy and wanting to play, but the trainer knew how to enforce obedience. But this is only fraction of the big establishment. In another section of the main building at the opposite end 'scircus horses" and ponies were being drilled for future perform ances by being ridden around a circus ring by an experienced rider; and here were several wild animals of the hay or grain eating species for whom there was not room elsewhere. We come now to the cen tral part of the building which is all taken up with the cages of the lions ionesses, Gone of whom has had 16 cubs) tigers, 'tigeresses, :" partners, elks, pumas, rhinoceroses, hippo potamuses, ostriches, monkeys, giratfes 6 of them), long legged "birds," birds of pretty plumage. There were wild animals of all 1 kinds and descriptions generally, many of them unknown to ordinary students of zool- ogy. On going to the cage to see the big ostrich, that proud bird was found laid low, stretched out upon tine straw, dead as Cesar. l It had died during the preceding night not 1 from modification as the keeper said on | hearing that Oscar Wilde had declared sun- l flowers more aesthetic than ostrich plumes,
 but from indigestion. That's the way the money goes in the show business" but Bar mum merely telegraphs over to his London agent for more. The bird was stuffed the
 same day for the Smithsonian Institute,
 Washington. The display of lions and tigers of both sexes, together with cubs of the same species, is very fine. One of the most inter-
 esting sights is g pretty, fawn-like mother
 kangaroo with her baby kangaroo, carried, as
 those acquainted with kangaroo lore know, in
 pouch-like hiding place under the body
 back of the fore legs. The little kangaroo l keeps his head out, his bright eyes keenly
 watching all that is going on around and 1 every now and then the little one gets ca- ressing touch on the nose from his watchful parent, who looks very gentle and at the
 same time is always alert to warn her little
 pet of danger. Near this cage was the baby hippopotamus with mouth which went open wide at Mir. Thomas bidding, showing I a rith Hyh Joh