Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-08-24
FISHES EASILY ERIGHFEEED.
summer Is the Hardest Time for
Them in the Aquarium
of the City.


"You might not Think said an
aquarium attendant, according to the
New York Sun, chat fans and fishes
had anything to do with one another,
but as a matter of fact they have,
lot. Summer is the worst time of the
whole year for fishes held in captivity
where the public can get at them, as
in a great aquarium like this; and it
is made so by the rights they get
from fans carried in the hands of
visitors.
"Canes and umbrellas have to be
checked at the door. A good many
people don't understand why. The
reason is that there are some among
the visitors who, if they were permit
ted to carry in a cane or an umbrel-
La, would point with it to some fish,
or maybe touch the glass of the tank
with it, either of which actions might
brighten fish so that it would dash
and thrash around and maybe run
into wall and kill itself. We avoid
the danger from these things by re-
curing that canes and umbrellas shall
be checked.
"But we can't undertake to check
the newspaper that a man may have
in his pocket, and with which later,
thoughtlessly, or even maybe with in
tent to be friendly to some fish, he
may tap on the glass of tank, to the
fish's great injury.
''The worst things of all in this way
are the fans, for there are so many
carried in their season, and it seems
so natural for those who carry fans
to wave them and swing them about,
and here to use them with which to
point out fishes or to tap on the
glass to them. We have to keep the
sharpest sort of lookout of all in
summer to keep people from tapping
on the glass with their fans.
''You see this beautiful fish here,
a valuable fish, too, sailing around
and around in the water, ali stirred
uP2- Somebody has come along and
stopped and looked at this fish and
tapped on the glass with her fan in
the most friendly and admiring spirit.
But where the fish lives when it's at
home nobody ever comes along in the
water waving something at it, and
that fan frightens the fish almost to
death Here it is Is minutes after
closing, and the fish is going yet; it
is quieter than it was, and it viii
come out all right.
GA fish might, as I told you, dart
off to butt into wall and kill itself,
or it might worry and run itself to
death or bruise itself and so make
a spot where fungus could get a
start on it and finally kill it, or so
weaken it as to lead to its death.
E'Not all the visitors are thought
less about the fishes, by any meanss
I've known people so careful of them
that they went along in front of the
tanks on tiPtoe. But most people put
their whole foot down when they go
past, and good many of them, first
and last, don't hesitate to point at
the fishes, or even to touch the glass
of the tanks, and as far as that dam
ger to the fishes goes, the worst time
of the whole year for them is right
now, when people are carrying fans"
Shameful to whistle in Europe.
'.Nowhere but in the United
States and England do men and boys
whistle in public with shame" said
a traveller the other night who is on
his way around the world for the third
time. "In France I have heard men
hum on the streets, and in Germany
and Russia have even heard them
sing, but not even when they are in--
toxicated Will these. foreigners whis-
tie as we do. 1t is odd that we should
have this habit. It is common to the
wealthy and high born among us as
well as to the poor and lowly. Only
the other afternoon saw young
man, who aims at exc1usiveness and
has valet, whistIing Dolly Gray on
Chestnut street as loud as he could.
Here and there some one smiled slight
ly at him, but he attracted no undue
attention, whereas, had he been in
Paris or IN st. Petersburg they would
probably have locked him up for a
lunatic, The japanese and Chinese
never whistle. All those whom I have
met do not know how, and they can't
learn. have been informed, as a mat
ter of fact, that neither the Japanese
nor the Chinese language has word
for Whistiing.. = Philadelphia Rec
srd