Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
HOW TO RUN A zoo.
Points Picked Up in Central Park,
New York, That Are Important
for Pittsburg Just Now.
COST OF 4 THOUSAND ANIMALS.
The Carnivorous Animals Get Only One
Heal Day and Then Have to Fast
When Sunday Comes.
BEARS REQUIRE BREAD BY The TON.
The Temperature Must be Kept at Point Near What
tbs Animals Enjoy whsa VIII
COST OF A THOUSAND ANIMALS.
BEARS REQUIRE BREAD BY The TON
TIE Temperature Must be Kept at Point Near What
tbs Animals Enjoy whsa VIII
WRITTEN FOR THK DIsPLTcH.I


happy family of 9O7 members to look after,
and went down there the other day to see
how the family is regulated.
Regular habits has much to do with the
good health in the Central Park. One meal
a day is the rule, but the consump-
tion of victuals nevertheless is enor-
nous. The bill Of fare shows little var
iety, but what is served is wholesome and
there is an abundance of it. The gentle
manly superintendent and solicitious physi-
clan are combined in the person of Mr..
William A. Conklin. He furnished me the
following, which will give you an idea of the
quantity OF nourishment the family con-
sumes in the course OF a year:
Three hundred and seven thousand eight
hundred and ninety-one pounds hay, $50
bushels corn. $50 bushels oats, 125 bags bran,
156 horses. 9,095 pounds fish, 2,915 quarts
milk, 80. SO pounds bread, 16 bushels seed,
100 barrels apples, A barrels carrots, $50
head cabbage. The actual cost of this sup
ply IN 1889 was s., SOS SO, so that the average
expense 10 the city OF each of Mr.. Conklin's
guests was So AZ.
MEDICINE FOR THE SICK.
This estimate would strike Tip, the senior
elephant, as huge joke, while the three
toed sloth and the kinkajou might regard
the bill as exorbitant. The cost of medicine
administered TO the sick In the same time
was only S21 80, or between two and three
cents per head. The animals that eat meat
had to have ice, of course; the bill for that
was Sl41 %; TOR heating in winter, 81, ,905 %;
rid NC from steamer or station to park,
$50 20.
The regular dinner hour in the menagerie
u -. Il 1 ! Al :. L
the animals need no gong or steam whistle.
Should the keepers fail to appear with their
baskets and trucks at the appointed hour an
uproar would be loosed beside which Bed
lam would be a pigs whisper. AS it is, the
lions, panthers, tigers and all the cat family
begin to show uneasiness as the hour OF 2
approaches, stalking upand down with glar-
ing eyes and lashing their haDks with their
tails. The elephant changes from his Gus
tomary attitude Of receiving the small boys
gifts, shifts in a see-saw fashion from one
pcnderous foot TO another, and his trunk
quivers In the air expectantly. The camel
lets out another link in his neck and the
pupil Of his sapient eve distends. All the
monkeys-the Guinea baboon, the mandrill,
the pig-tailed and the spider monkey, and
all the other quaint fellows-begin to chatter
and scratch themselves furiouslv; the bears
rub their noses and waddle to the front bars
of their great iron house, and the peIicans
yawp at the barking seals
A DIFFERENT MENU FOR EACH.
What is one animals meat is another ami
malls poison, and the largest beasts eat no
flesh at all. The elephant. for instance,
fuds hay good enough for him; he tucks
away a bale of it every day. He is one of
toe privileged guests and eats morning and
afternoon. In the summer grass is substl-
tuted for hay. 1t is cut in the park and is
served to him green and fresh as young
lettuce. The American and Cape buffaloes,
the cRmels and the deer also find nay and
grass siren ythening, the larger animals eat
ing about % pounds day. But they can
not live by hay alone. The deer has, in ad-
dition, pint of corn daily, which puts fat
on mis- ribs, and the other animals enjoy q
quart OF oats.
The bears are tremendous bread eaters.
Ten loaves dav is the portion of each of
them. Superintendent Conklin would like
TO give them corn bread, but it's not on the
market. He saws it would hardly pay him
to establish a bakery for the bears and
other bread-eating animals, in spite of their
amazing appetites, so they are forced to put
up with wheaton loaves. The experiment
OF feeding meat to the bears has been tried,
but ii makes their hair fall out, and bald
bear would get scant attention from the
children. Twice a week the big white
Polar bear has a change of diet, bluefsh,
mess Of tomoods or any other fish in sea-
son, being thrown TO him. He is not SO ueam-
ish about the freshness of it, and the other
bears do not disturb him as he bolts it, bones
and all This is a concession to his Arctic
origin, and one of the tidbits that Host
Conklin allows his best behaved animals to
regsle themselves of. His bearship could
manage to make out on 4 straight diet OF
white bread.
THE FLESH OF THE HORSE.
Such a regimen, however, would i'll suit
the vitals of the cat family No one could
expect the kingly lion, the royal Bengal IT,
gar, the spotted leopard, and the sinewy ia
guar to put up with baked -four and water,
and they don't They eat flesh with real
blood in it. Had they choice of meats,
they would prefer Juicy kid, or the second
cut of the sirloin Of a beeve; but the tax
payer couldn't stand that; New York would
soon be In the hands. of the Sheriff. The
dish these noble animals eat is horse, and
old horse at that When the New York
horse gets rheumatic in his joints, wheezy
IN his bellows, and hangs his head down to
his knees, he still has a chance to escape the
phosphate yard; he may be urged up to the
park, knocked down bv the horse butcher
NhA AubO ntdhCs anu SuuDe, dUu eaten DY the
king or queen of beasts. Superintendent
COnklin keeps regular butcher to cut up
the meat OF his cat family. As may be
Eeen by the above table they ate 156 horses
last year. OF course Mr.. Conklin never
serves up Salvador or a Sunol, not even on
feast days. A horse is horse when dead.
and s. wreck is palatable enough to a me-
nagerie lion.
These animals are rather particular about
the way their meat is put upon the table
They turn up their noses at fat, and refuse
sineW and gristle. The meat is given to
them stripped Of these, and without bone,
which they cannot digest An exception
must be made in the case of the hyeua.
whose digestive organ is as elastic and as.
fimllating as that Of Southside goat.
The hyena gets bones and gulps them.
TAKE A REST ON SUNDAY.
A set quantity of meat is given to each
animal, according to his appetite and needs.
The big tiger leads off with 18 pounds; then
comes the male lion with 15; the female.
IA; leopard, 10; panthers, 8; prairie wolves,
3, and jackals 2. One day a week, invaria-
bly, Sunday, the meat-eaters fast. There is
no religion about this, but the expediency
OF giving their organs of digestion a rest.
Mr.. Conklin has found that these animals
thrive better on six meals a week. With
seven they become prey to indigestion and
are very miserable. A curious thing about
the Sunday abstinence is that the beasts
know when the day comes round ss surely
rs a divine who has two sermons and a
christening on his mind. Two o'clock Sum
day excites no craving in the stomach of
the Central Park tiger. While on a week
day he is prowling and expectant SIS the
time comes on, Sunday finds him drowsy