The Portland daily press., 1897-08-16

1 IL
Galloon ascension, parachute jump, air
ship ASCENSION,
| IN THE HALLS.
A Show at the Auditorium Which Is as
Good as the Circus.
At the Auditorium and City hall Sat-
urday afternoon, the hustle and excite
ment of Fair week had begun ahead Of
Time. The Auditorium looked like q
menagerie. On one side were the animals
IN the collection brought here by W. R.
Clifford of Pennington, and they were
scattered over the floor in such realistic
fashion that a man who had been inves-
tlgating saloon would have been thrown
INTO oel1rium tremens at the sight. The
collectlon is composed mostly of the ami
mails found in the woods of Maine, but
There are some big fellows from other
regions, Polar bear, for instance, and
that famous member of the bear family,
the Rocky Mountain grizzly. Then there
is line specimen of the mountain lion.
This particular mountain lion was found
one morning by friend of Mr.. Clifford
In bear trap in the forests of Idaho.
The man who found the lion in possess
sion of the trap was armed with shot
gun, but he didn't use it. He thought
it was safer to go four miles to his home
and procure rifle before attempting to
end the career of the animal in the trap.
When one looks at the mountain lion,
even in his present state, after being sub.
mttted to the art of the taxidermist, one
Is impressed with the rare good sense of
that man who walked four miles for his
rifle before trying conclusions with the
captive. Traps sometimes break and a
rifle is better than shot gun in many
cases. This is one Of the cases. Visitors
from away in this collection include
snakes and an alligator from RFlorida,
monkeys from Africa and many other
beasts and reptiles from far away parts
of the earth, but after all the most inter-
esting portion of the exhibit is that de-
voted to the animals Of our own state.
OF course first in interest Is the moose,
and there are two of him and also a cow
moose and calf. The male moose are i'm
mense fellows, one standing nineteen and
one-half hands high and measures four
teen feet and eight inches from the tip
of his nose to the hoofs of his hind legs,
the measurement having been taken when
the animal was stretched out just after
he had been shot. 1t is against the law
to shoot a COW moose or calf, but the
collection contains fine specimens of
both and they were not shot in violation
of the law either, for at the time of the
Worlds Fair special act was passed by
the legislature giving Mr.. Clifford permits
sion to shoot the animals for the state's
exhibit at Chicago. There is also in the
collection a family OF caribou, now so rare
in the forests of Maine. The children
will be interested in the baby deer, a
stuffed specimen Of youngster which
died at the age of one day. There are
wild cats, bears, beavers, squirrels and
all the other animals of the forest of the
state and the fields, too, for there is a
specimen of that creature which looks
something like cat and which it is the
part of prudence to be able to recognize
while it is yet long way off. The faith
teresting, because he is one of the two
animals who can kill a hedge hog with
out getting a mouthful of quilts. He
does it-by crawling along the under side
of the limb on which the pocupine is
perched and biting his prey on the under
side of the neck which is not covered by
the sharp quilts, with which the pocu-
II l.
can also kill the hedgehog without in
jury to himself, but he does so by hitting
the smaller animal blow on the side of
the head with his paw and the sole of the
foot Of the bear is tougher than leather
and cannot be punctured by the quilts of
the porcupine. The only live animal
in the collection, by the way, is white
porcupine and it Is as tame as Gagged
squirrel, knowing the voice of it's master
When spoken to it responds with cry
which Is not unlike the tones of child S
voice. All this may sound very much
like lesson in natural history, but the
people who study the lesson with the aid
of these stuffed animals will find that
among the many interesting things at
the big show few will be more worthy
of inspection than this collection.
The exhibit in the auditorium promis-
es to exceed the expectations of the man
agement. The early arrivals among the
exhibitors were on hand Saturday after
noon and busily at work putting their
display in shape. Over on the superintend-
ent's desk was flstful of entry blanks
representing the exhibitors who will be
along bright and early this morning.
The stage on which the entertainments
will be given has been erected and besides
putting the exhibits in place little now
remains. to be done before the opening of
this part of the show.
At City hall things were not so far
along Saturday, but there was enough
accomplished to give promise of the first
class show to be seen this week. The
tanks for the fish for the exhibit were
in place and the tables were in some