The morning call., 1892-09-08
DING0S, LIONS And THINGS.
They Were to Have Been Sold
at Auction.
But the Woodward Heirs Paid Their Assess.
ments at the Last Moment and Mr..
Middleton Was spared.

Three lions, three bears, three iaguars
one hyena. two camels, two holy cattle
! (probably the Behemoths of Holy Writ ad
vertised by the circuses), two coyotes. one
| lion, two anteaTers, two emus. a lot OF sea
gulls, eleven missing links (monkeys). five
mules, one llama, two coons and one Esqui-
maux dog were not sold at auction yester-
day morning.
This is startling statement, and needs
some explanation.
Perhaps you think it would have been
more startling if such heterogeneous col
lection of the beasts of the field and fowls
of the air had been sold yesterday morning,
or any other morning.
Now there's where you're wrong.
The natural and logical thing would have
been for Auctioneer Middleton to have gone
out to Woodward's Gardens yesterday
morning. boldly entered the lion s den, raised
his tail playfully, exhibited his fine teeth
and beautiful roar TO an admiring audience
OF curio and bric-a-brac collectors, and then
said:
Gentlemen, how much am l bid for this
handsome beast? Hes all weol and y"
or something TO that effect.
Mr.. Middleton had drawn up his will,
paid the back premium on his life insur-
anee policy and had otherwise prepared to
carry cut the courts Instructions.
These were that he should sell at public
vendue, yesterday morning, S64t3 1o worth
OF the animals and oil paintings aud other
personal property at Woodwards Gardens.
And for the past week whole columns
notice OF this impending sale has been pub
lished in the Bulletin.
SO you see the regular thing was that
these animals should have been sold.
But the irregular and unexpected oc-
&c lxs nd q IN
latter phase of this sentence nulliies the
former so did the creditors TO the Wood
ward estate nullify the notice of that re-
ceiver's sale yesterday morning by coming
to time and paying up their dues.
Now all this was not only very irregular,
but very disappointing.
a critical public had been led to look for
ward with rare anticipation TO the specta-
Gle Of Mr.. Middleton in the midst of the
geological collection receiving bids, now on
the big grizzly BEAR now on the holy cattle
and anon pointing out the excellent quail
ties Of the zone dingO" or the three
jaguars."
IL would have been rare sight and sew
eral local artists had made arrangements to
be on hand with their sketchng-pads.
But tate was against the expectant popu-
lace and Mr.. Middleton still adorns his
Montgomery-street Office, whole in limb
and with nary scratch on his epideTmls.
AT the last moment the heirs, X. b. Wood
ward, Mary c. Raum and Helen j. Hutch
lnsoD, came to time and paid their share of
the expenses of maintaining the Wood
wards Garden menagerie aud curio collec-
ton.
Heretofore they refused to pay their por-
tion of the expenses and the court had or
dered a portion of the personal property
equivalent to their Indebtedness, sold at
public vendue.
Had the sale taken place it would have
been peculiar in more than one sense.
The aucti0neer would have named the
price at which the property was to be sold,
and the bidding would have been as to who
would be willing to take the fewest lions
and tigers and other beasts and fowls and
curiOS for the sum named.
The chances were that, at a forced sale
such as this would have been the whole
menagerie would hardly have been suffi-
cient to induce any 0De to pay out s6443 rs.
Most men would hesitate to adopt a single
Bengal lion as pet, even if they were paid
the sum named as bonus.
The heirs probably appreciated this fact,
and rather than see their property sacrificed
for song concluded to obey the mandate
of the Probate Court. which was that each
heir should cay pro rata share for main
tanning the menagerie intact until the es-
tate shall have been settled.