Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-15
SPORTSMEN'S SPOILS.
How Many Of the Feathered and
Furred Trophies Are Preserved.
THE SHOP OF A TAXIDERMIST.
What It Costs to Have Birds and Beasts
Properly Mounted.
CURIOUS MEMGNToEs OF THE CHASE
rvR1rrrN FOE THE D1spArcH.l


I found out all about it in the queerest
place YOU ever saw-a little low shop, dark,
dusty. beetle-browed on one of the old, old
streets close to the big bridge. The pro.
prietor is English, with the richest cockney
accent. Like Cassius, he wears lean and
hungry look, and a. the outset was as close
as wax-in fact. seemed to have revived the
Know Nothing party for my especial benefit.
Finding at last from my questions that I did
know a hawk from a heronshaw-nsy, even
one hawk from another. he grew as bland as
a May morning, and let me look my fill at
his queer wares There are birds, beasts,
reptiles and fish, not to mention their skins,
teeth, claws, and SO on. My cockpey friend
is taxidermist, who either buys outright
the sportsman's spoil, or else for consider
alton, puts it in such shape for him as admits
of its being kept for future reference. The
sellers, for the most part, are hunters pure
and simple, who follow it for profit, with no
pretense OF sport. Now and then an anna
teur turns flock and feather into money, but
in general, the man who can afford TO go
hunting is abundantly able to keep all the
game he can kill.
DRESSED AND MOUNTED BEASTS.
Some sorts, though, bring pretty penny.
A tiger skin in the raw is worth $3.50.
dressed and mounted as a rug it Is worth
S400. A jaguar's skin costs raw about $50,
and is worth $50 when ready for my lady's
parlor or boudoir. Raw black bear skins
cost $40 and bring $40. Cinnamon are $40
higher in each state Buffalo robes un-
in of
likely ever again will be until the enter
prising Kansan, who is breeding "sealskin
buffalo" by crossing with black polled Angus
cattle, shall have his new "varmint" upon
thousand hills. Indian dressed buffalo robes
are S75 to 500 each; deer robes, So to SIS.
A panther skin fetches a fancy price, as it is
only once in great while one comes TO
market. A good specimen, with teeth and
claws attached, would come near tiger skin
in value, though, said my guide, philosopher
and friend, "Hif the teeth do be lacking ha
man or so, wy, hi jest sock in one from some
hother hanimil hi ave hin stock" That is
not the limit of his power either. He con-
fided to me that most realistic gorilla bang,
horrible and seven feet high, who stood
grinning at the door, was "Ha fancy piece
made up to see what hi could do"
THE FEATHERED TRIBE.
A group of fo4-bats, with outspread wings
hovered over his gorrillaship-price $40
each, and frightiul enough for nightmare
of Inferno. Back of them poised bald
eagle. four times as big, but'worth only $40
more-though Icannot suspect his English
owner of a purpose to bear the national bird.
A gray eagle, he tells me, is worth SIS,
which is likewise the price of the great
snowy and big barn owls. A pert wild tur-
kew and gorgeous peacock with tail at full
spread, are S25 each; white swan SIS. The
big condor of the Andes, with his naked head
and cruel hooked beak is so horrible that 1
will not stay to hear his price. Just behind
him stands 'on order" great snowy fam
lingo from South America, 8 feet tall, as
slender as reed, and mighty pretty in his
pink and white coat. He is worth all of
$50, but not purchasable for thrice the sum,
as he is the first fruit of his owners gun in
that far wild land. Close at hand are some
paradise birds, never known to alight"
but securely on metal fixtures, the poets to
the contrary notwithstanding. Next come
specimens of the African trochu, 40, 600 of I
whose two long, light, beautiful tail feathers |
were pulled out to make the cloak of the |
Hottentot King. 1t must have been mar |
velously lovely. The bird is ordinary |
enough-about the size Of big woodpecker
with a dull coat family touched with color.
but the tail feathers that stand six inches
below the rest, are of the softest, most de-
licious, indescribable green, with yellow and
blue lighrs-and are as fairy-like in texture
tbietIa domn