Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-11
The Actual Reality Not What Has
Been Glowingly Painted by
the Managers.
ANIMALS KNEE DEEP In MUD.
Public Funds Appropriated for Park on a
Grand Scale Put to Private Use
by the officials.
BROKEN PROMISES TO CONGRESS.
sProt Langley, Formerly Of Allegheny, Charged With
frittsrng Away the Money.
rrnoM A srArr CORRESPONDENCE

fFRoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.-A few days ago
a resolution was introduced in the House
asking the regents of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition to furnish detailed statement of ex-
penditures for the construction of the new
geological park. This excited a good
eminent gentlemen, one of whom
is Prof. Samuel P. Langley, the
secretary, late of the Allegheny Observatory,
who has charge of the expenditures of the
appropriation. A gentleman who has had
ample opportunity to know Of what he is
talking about says that while Prof. Lang
ley may know a lot about the sun, he knows
nothing about sociological gardens, and that
a big appropriation has been almost frittered
away and almost nothing accomplished.
In Need of Shelter.
He declares that the building and fences
have been constructed out Of the appropria-
tion, which were entirely unauthorized; that
it was promised the new grounds should be
ready for the animals before this winter,
and not pen has been built The animals
are now kept under the caves of the Smith
deep with mud, and some rare animals
among them Rocky Mountain sheep, have
died on account of the condition in which
they were kept.
In concluding long story of the manage
ment of the project up to the present time,
the gentleman concluded by saving: I'm
stead of devoting the los acres of the ZOO
logical park to the uses for which it was in
tended, and carrying out the professions and
promises made to Congress and the public,
they have set aside IS acres only to be oc-
cupied by animals and the public. The rest
is reserved, 10 acres for an CASTRO physical
observatory" and IA acres or more for the
private grounds of the park administration.
"The land thus sequestrated cost S54, 600
of the peoples money, half of which was
paid by the District of Columbia. Positive
refusal has been made to allow the buffalo,
elk, deer, ETC., to be quartered on the Holt
property, the finest place in the park for
them.
Poor Accommodations for BuffaIoes.
Instead, the buffaloes and other ruminants
are to be located on the opposite ridge, ou
clay soil, where there are no large shade
trees and no trees save miserable lob-lolly'
or old field pines, which give no shade what
ever. This is the poorest place in the park
for the bufaloes. Instead of having,
rs Congress and the public were informed we
would have, the finest zoo in the world,
where all the animals would have from four
to ten times the space such animals have in
other geological gardens, only 3s acres have
been set aside for the animals, thus giving
them no more space than they have in the
Philadelphia, Cincinnati, London and other
geological gardens.
The rest of the land is reserved for private
grounds, from which both the public and
other animals are to be excluded, and vet
they demand eight acres more of land for
the park. With 16S-acre park provided
by Congress, the animals are to be restricted
to 3S acres in the poorest part OF it, and the
accommodations provided for them by law
are to be taken for an astronomer and a
human anatomiSt" LIGHTNER