The Negro world., 1900-03-10
A CIVILIZED BEAR.
Park Policeman WAKES PhiIosOphlcaJ
Over the Animals
Demise.

81 can't help thinking ABOUT tnat
GYPSY" said the Lincoln park police
man, refectively. as he watched the
two big polar bears taking a bath in
their city pool.
"You see" he continued, Gypsy
was different from any kind of bears
we ever had here before, and on that
account, l suppose, l watched her
more than | did the rest of the fam
lily, and between you and me / don't
think il was right to kill her. 1t is
true Gypsy would climb out of the pit
and run away-ran away three times,
in fact. and gave n lot of trouble to
fetch her back, to say nothing about
soaring everybody off the streets in
Lake View, and rattling the city cop
pers' besides.
"Gypsy, you must understand,
wasn't an ordinary brute. Now, these
bears in the pit were brought up in
a cage and don't know anything about
the outside world, so they stay there
contented enough. But Gypsy was,
might say, a civilized bear, and had a
wide experience of men and things.
Gypsy, you know, was a trained ami
NAL. The commissioners bought her
from one of them Romany chaps that
camped on the prairie out south some
where last summer. Why he ever sold
her is a mystery to me. But just think
what a terrible change it made for
Gypsy!
You probably know that the per-
forming bears seen once in awhile on
village streets or at country fairs
come from Europe. They are what is
called the cinnamon species. When
captured young they are quite tract
able, and being intelligent can be
taught a number of amusing and lu-
dicrous tricks. Such a one was poor
Gypsy, whose pelt is to be stuffed with
straw and placed on exhibition over
there in the Latin memorial. Think
of the life that bear led in its happier
years, roaming over the country with
the master who reared il from a cub,
and who was its friend through all the
ups and downs of the free, wild life
of the wandering gypsies! Led by a
rope in its masters hand, it went
from village to village, going through
its clumsy antics in front of each
roadside inn-pole vaulting, turning
awkward somersaults, standing on it's
head, smoking a pipe, drinking out of
a bottle and pretending to be drunk,
and doing hundred other odd tricks.
Then, after passing around the hat.
these two comrades would sup to-
gether at the inn. Two loaves of
black bread and a pound of cheese
for bruin, half as much for the man,
and two quarts of beer for each of
them.
These were the bright spots in
Gypsy's life, but not less civilizinp
were the long tramps over hot, dusty
roads, with miles and miles between
hungry stomachs and the chance for
food; weary journeys through storms
of sleet and snow. and the night COM
ing on with no shelter in sight save
friendly straw stack or open shed.
for no peasant farmer would let a
big brown bear into his cottage. Often
these two slept together, Gypsy's
shaggy coat making a warm, soft pill
low for the masters head.
DO you wonder. now. that after a
dozen years of such a Ife-sfter trav-
cling all over Europe and half of
America as the constant composition
of a human being-that this GYPSY.
torn away from her only friend and
thrown into prison along with lot
OF ignorant black bears, should want
20 get away, and did get away, and
went in search of her old master?
For myself, don't wonder at il
at all. What surprises me, though, is
the--er-that is, the lack of tact of
those who were sent to catch her. The
idea of going after a civilized animal
like that with bludgeons and pitch
forks is enough to make man lose
faith in his kind. Why, they could
have led that bear back TO the park
with piece of cotton twine.
They said Gypsy was crazy. and
so they killed he., Well, maybe she
was crazy; she'd been through
enough; but l often wonder what her
old master. IL he ia still alive. thinks
about 1t all.T-Chieago Tribune.
New hoFk's Army OF Pensioners.