The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-28

to. Some time ago gave a man a posi-
ton as helper I'm the hippopotamus houses
with the Intention Of making him a keep.
| er II his work was satisfactory. He did
his work well. but somehow or other the
big animal took a great dislike to him
| When the man went to feed the hippo
potamus, the animal would make an ugly
rush, and certainly would have killed him
II he hadn't escaped In time. 1 asked
the man IL he had done anything 10 the
beast. He replied that he had been very
careful with him, and had done his best
to mako the hippopotamus comfortable.
/ then asked him II he ever spoke to the
animal. and he replied that he hadn't,
not knowing what TO say. Oh ] said.
that is the secret of 1t ALL The animal
wants you to talk However, the helper
could do nothing with the hippopotamus.
and l had to transfer the man to some
other department.
Our monkeys have very comicaI ways
of amusing themselves. The more peo-
pie are In the monkey house the iiveier
becomes the animals. Take Easter Mon
day, for instance, a very busy day. The
monkeys were then very lively and up TO
all kinds Of hanky panky tricks. One an
imal once snatched a handkerchief from a
lady's bodice, and. then, as far as you
could see, started a game Of blind mans
buff. He threw the handkerchief over hds
head and face. That done, he at once
began to move about the cage and endeav-
ored TO catch his fellows. In a moment
another monkey had caught the handker-
chief and tried to do the same thing, until
he, in turn, was dispossessed. So the fun
went on until the handkerchief was torn
into fragments.
Some years ago a ventriloquist was In
the monkey house, and, to amuse himself,
began to talk to the animals. Suddenly
the visitors In the house were astonlshed
to hear that one of the monkeys appar-
emily replied to what the man said. The
excitement spread, and the keeper was
surprised to find that the other monkeys
in the large cage also became much in
terested in the proceedings. Three of
them were especially inquring. AS the
conversation between the man and the
first monkey went on, these three moved
anxiously towards the talking monkey and
looked into his mouth. Both visitors and
monkeys were deceived.
THE monkey never laughs. The more
children laugh at them the more serious
do their faces become. Monkeys seem
to laugh with their limbs, for when they
enjoy themselves they are as active and
nimble as-as-monkeys."
The Indian rhinoceros seems to enjoy
himself in a very peculiar way, If what
happened when our representative saw
him is an index to his character. Every
now and then he butted the iron doors
Of his cage to be let out. When that
was done, he seemed to take delight in
butting at the other side Of the door to
be let in again.
The elephants idea Of enjoyment is
quite different. They make themselves
friendly with anyone, and so are filled
to bursting point with buns and other
good things.
AS for the cat species, the keeper in
formed our representative that the chief
amusement of the animals under his care
was "sleepin' an swearin'," while the
lions are pretty much the same II never
knew such lion for eating and sleeping
as our Victor" said the venerable keeper
Of the lions to our representative. 'He
fairly eats his head off.
The brown bears and young lions and
the two young cheetahs seem to most
enjoy life amongst the animals. They are
all as playful as kittens, and fight and
box until they pant again with the exer-
ton or until one or the other gets cross.
Then the keeper may have to intervene
and declare the fight a draw.