The Portland daily press., 1894-12-08
CASTLE GARDEN AQUARIUM.
1t is Finished and it is the FINEST In
tile World.
One Little Gold fish That Cost $4,000

tile WOrlu.
One Little Gold fish That Cost $4,000.
In every land there is deal OF interest
shown In fishes, and it finds vent III aqua
ria, In whose tanks swim hsnes ltoin eseis
cline. All seas are secured to make THESE
collections complete. and many u Ine!h
have won worldwide fame ANA ~ .AiS
country as we'll there are many u A'sh fe-
pute. But the one in New forh famous
old resort, Castle Garden. to which Inc M
ishing touches are now bang pul' VIII pe
far and away ahead of any other III the
world, SO far as palatial ana heaith1ui
housing is concerned.
From time to time a determines ehor1
has been made to establish permanent
aquarium in New York City. Every such
attempt has failed, The practical mon VINO
spent vast sums of money Ior aquafia
wound up always with a loss, giving az the
conclusion of their costly EXPERIMENT. the
same reason for their failnre-that natural
history is not Taught in the public sohools
| of New York and that people VINO Visit the
aquarium pass by what is really rare IN
captured fishes and are attracted by
group of blue crabs crawling over rock.
1t is impossible to have a we'll equipped
aquarium without the curious denlZens OF
the sea. Rare fish are expensive to capture
and transport, and since-they do not draw
| the paying public the olden time water ex-
| hibitions always failed for lack of patron
| age.
If you want to find the start of anything
curions in the show line. if you will delve
in the archives, you will nearly always
| scratch up Barnum, genial, honest. OLD
Phineas T. Barnum. Therefore it won't
surprise you to know that the first aquarl-
| UNI ever exhibited in the metropolis was
due to the genius of that hustling old show
man. When his museum occupied the site
lately left vacant by the moving of the
Herald" uptown, Mr.. Barnum conceived
the idea of an exhibition of curious fishes.
! If there was one trait which distinguished
| Barnum from. his fellow-men it was his
ability to see the value Of first class assist
| ants, and so, in the fish question, he sought
| and found the leading pisciculturist of the
day. That man was William e. Damon,
now connected with Tiffany Co. Mr..
Damon sought near and far for fishes Tor
Mr.. Barnum, and one day the exhloItlon
| was opened with forty tanks filled with
| thousands cf varieties of marine hfe. A
respectable aquarium display even Tor
these days of gigantic schemes-brt In the
period when it was first seen. was truly
magnificent undertaking.
One OF BaInuIn's drawing cards was
white whale, and another devil fish,
which print depicts overturning a ship.
| In reality this octopus was about SIX feet
long. A sea horse and mermaid ware also
features of the Ann street aquarium. The
sea horse or hipocanus was one only in min
allure. being only six inches long; the mer-
| maid, clever Chinese manufactured trlck.
Brother Barnum also introduced, too, the
sea serpent-net alive. but dead
Because the features of the Barnum
AQUARIUM were in the main of the side
show variety, it does not follow the whole
collection was like it. On the whole the
entire collection was a most mefitorious
one. Mr.. Barnum found that the experiment
did not pay and assigned its financial fall
ure to the lack of general knowledge of
natural history by the people at large. The
Barnum AQUARIUM came to an ultimate
end in one of the fires and in an old ''Har-
per's'' is printed a very enticing picture OF
the white whale lying among the ruins,
nicely baked and partially covered with
frosting of ice.
The aquarium idea lay dormant for
dozen years. when Herman Reiche, the
| animal importer, took it up. He. assisted
| somewhat by capital, built on the corner
| of Thirty-fifth street and Broadway very
complete and big aquarium. containing
| pools on the ground floor and wall tanks
| on both the ground floors and the floors
| above. When completed the natural his
| tory 'sharps" of this country and Europe
rated it the finest aquarium in the world;
even better than the famous Brig hton.
| England, one.
| For short time the project prospered;
| then the attendance fell Of, and. as in the
| days of Barnum's water exhibition. spe-
| cialties had to be introduced to draw the
paying public. MI. Reiche had all the
| showman's instinct CO ipled with the true
| showman's money spending courage. and
when he commenced to put in extra hshy
attractions they were notable indeed. One
| time, in a huge pool in the centre of the
| building, eight whales disported them
| selves. Not very big whale, but q ute large
enough to give the New Workers good idea
| OF how the big mammal of the sea looks at
| close quarters Another time group OF
| educated seals, the first ever seen, amused
visitors by ringing bells and doing yar1-
Gus other tricks, Ascollection of educated
| trout was shown also. The trout. at COM
mand of their trainer. would jump out of
water and over stick he held in his hand
| and when hungry bit a string which rang
| bell. The first hippopotamus ever bought
| to this country alive was shown at tne
| Reiche Aquarium. and one day there arrived
| packed in wine, the body of giant devil
| fish-the largest ever captured, up to That
| time, in the world. 1t was thirty-nlne feet
| and six inches long. The giant squid
created sensation. Thousands OF people
| paid admission to see it and 1t still has
some drawing power left. for what remains
of it preserved in alcohol reposes In Sixth
avenue museum to-day.
An angel fish from Bermuda was also one
of the attrat tions. He was handsomely
shaped fish, about the size of two pound
trout. with big fms and wavy tail, and from
nose to tail the 'anger' was That exact
shade of blue one sees in tropical SKY.
Arnt bar a111sinc q