The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-03-01

humbugs dissurbed the wild animal
market very seriously. Since the great
showmans death, and indeed, for some
years prior to it, Conkling, of New
York, has practically controlled the
heavy American trade, andthe friendly
relations just established between him
and his four European competitors.
make tile circle complete, and corner
the wild animal market. The firms
named are older than the hills, the
business having descended from father
to son. For merly rival expeditions
We're sent out by the different houses.
and when anyone had 8 great prize to
offer he wired or wrote to all four
houses, relying on the competition to
keep upprices. Now all this IS changed,
and there is no more bidding, one
against the other.
An additional economy has been eff
fected whereby the expeditions will
not clash, and the saving of expense
will be very great. There are now
three animal hunting parties out in
Africa, but their territory is we'll de-
lined and will not overlap in any par
ticular. One party, under the leader
ship Of Herr Menzes, a veteran lion
hunter, has been in the southern Sec
ton of the Soudan all spring, and is ex-
pected back at Hamburg in the near
future. The men have travelled over
one thousand miles, and, although
there is no regular mail service in the
section they are covering, word has
been received that nearly 800, 900
worth of forest kings will be brought
back by them. Very little has been
paid for the lions and other animals,
ammunition, .cast-away arms, clothing
and jewelry forming the principal sub
stitutes for currency. But the expedi-
ton has involved the cost of about $780,
600, and unless times brighten the
profit on the venture will not be enor-
nous. The animals will be distributed
among the members of the trust. An
other expedition is expected back al
most at nee from South Africa. It
was fitted out by Reiche and is to re-
plenish the depleted stocks of giraffes,
zebras, monkeys and ostriches. The
salable value Of the consignment is also
estimated at 100000, and the distribu-
tion will be made in a similar manner.
According to the new plan adopted
by the trust, all competition will be
avoided. All negotiations by q buyer
must be conducted with one house, and
If anything wanted is not on hand the
fact will be telegraphed to the other
members of the trust and profits duly
adjusted. The only difficulty in the
way of keeping up prices beyond fig
ures established by the law of supply
and demand is the cost of help. A lion
or an elephant cannot be kept in con-
dition, in Europe at any rate. on less
than one dollar a day, so that if one is
kept in stock for six mouths the pros
pective profit has been eaten up, using
the expression in its most literal sense.
The prices at which the European end
of the syndicate vi said to propose
holding their stock are about as fol-
lows: Elephants. 1000 to s., 900, ac-
cording to the size and condition of
tusks; hippopotaini, rhinoccri and gi-
RATES., about the latter figure: lions of
full growth about the same: leopards
and panthers, $3.50 to $500; bears, graded
from $50 to $500; snakes, from $40 to
$500, and tapirs at about $1,000. The
highest price paid for a captive of the
wild order last year was $12, 500, which
was given for a white ounce, captured
in the Ural mountains. It proved a
poor investment, as it's keepers could not
provide a sufficiently low temperature,
and it died within a few weeks. An
equally large sum is said to be forth,
coming for another Russian or Siberian
ounce or wildcat, but the animal is sc
hard to capture alive that the demand
nav never he supnlicd.