Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-04
at the mass meetings called here to uphold
the miners cause.
Animal Fights at the Zoo.

Inc miners cause
Animal Fights at the Zoo.
Mention of the ZOOS induces the reflection
that the animal keepers at the fine Central
Park zoo have exhibited a great faculty this
year for fixing up savage battles between
the brutes under their care. The last scrap
OF this sort at the Central Park zoo took
place on Saturday afternoon last. when q
new cinnamon bear was for some unex-
planned reason placed in the same cage with
a huge grizzly bear. If the animal keepers
dldn overlook the fact that cinnamon and
grizzly bears have no possible kind of use
for each other, then it seems to be pretty
fair presumption that they were hankering
10 see a fight. At any rate. they saw u
fight, and it was one of the warmest af-
fairs of its kind that has ever taken place
between animals in captivity. The CHINA
mon bear, despite the fact that he weighs
something like 500 popnds less than the
9o-pound grizzly, walloped the latter to a
standstill, and the grizzly was well-nigh
dead when the cinnamon concluded to let up
on him.
Only a few months ago one of the saurian
keepers at the Central Park zoo, for some
unaccountable reason, placed a new Nile
crocodile in the same tank with a Florida
alligator of great size. The two big lizards
of different species went at each other with
enthusiastic ferocity, and when 1t was all
over the crocodile from Egypt was minus so
large section of his tail that he had TO ba
killed.
Since then the keepers contrived to fetch
together a pair of hippopotami that were
known to be mortal enemies. and when the
two gigantic wallowerS got through with
each other they were both pretty nigh ready
to die. Six months or so ago new keeper
at the Central Park zoo, while cleaning
cages, committed the faux pas of putting 4
royal Bengal tiger in the same cage with
magnificent African lion. When the tiger
got through with the lion the latter had so
many big hunks missing from his pelt that
he was sorrowful sight. A satirical chap.
who writes letters to the newspapers. has
suggested that If these fights between the
great beasts at the zoo must happen, the
animal keepers might well arrange mat
tiers so that sporting persons liable to be in
terested In such affairs could be notified in
advance and engage little betting on tha
outcome of the battles.
Children's Court Established.
An admirable institution known as the
children's court was inaugurated here q
few weeks ago. There are dozens of juvenile
minor offenders in New York every day. and
until the establishment of this court they
were herded in the same courts with hard
ened malefactors of both sexes, system
replete with baneful results. A boy accused
of throwing rocks on the street or playing
hockey from school would be hailed to q
court before the bar of which thieves and
cutthroats of all descriptions passed and
the communicating effect of such an associa-
ton was a source of genuine and we'll
founded alarm to the persons who finally
arranged for the establishment of the chill
dren's court. The judge of that court is O.
capable lawyer and eX-magiStrate named
Olmstead, who used to work with Charles
A. Dana on the New York Sum re-
porter.
Now there Is going to be a separate court
for the women, too, and it ought to prove
to be pretty good thing. The atmosphere
of the New York criminal courts makes
pretty poor breathing for women accused
of minor offenses when they compelled
to mingle cheek by jowl with tough and
n q
women's court will be in operation inside
of a month. 1t has been suggested that
female judge ought to be chosen for this
court from among the considerable number
of clever women lawyers practicing in GRIM
inal cases in New York, but it is hardly
likely that this suggestion will be adopted.
New York has scarcely arrived at the stage
where it will confer nice piece of judicial
patronage upon woman who is not in q
position to deliver the goods at the polls.
Notable Month for Crimes.
The month Of September, 1902, will ever
be memorable in the police history of New
York for having furnished a series OF al
most incredibly atrocious murders in quick
sequence. The narrowing death of Nicho-
las Fish at the hands of a strapping tough
was the beginning of this appalling carni-
val Of murder. Then came the dreadful
murder of the Pulitzer woman in the fiat Of
son Of Brigham Young. with the appre-
hension of one of the Mormon prophets
grandsons on the charge of having commit
ted the unspeakable crime. Right on top
of this followed the savage murder of a re-
spected citizen of Long Island in a tender
loin joint, into which he had wandered in
the progress of a spree. Nothing more re-
voting than the story of this crime, in
which the victims head was chopped off
with q meat cleaver, has ever come to the
surface in the criminal history of New
York On the same day an actor and stage
manager, who has often been seen IN
Washington, deliberately shot his wife to
death.
Whisky was at the bottom Of every one
of these awful crimes, as 1T was at the
bottom of the murder of young Clarence
Foster and "Dimple' Lawrence down in
Jamaica a couple of months ago, SO that
the wonder is not great that preachers and
civilians imbued with the reform spirit are
agitating for great temperance revival OF
the sort that used to be held with such
good results thirty and forty years ago.
1t is extraordinary to note what a tre-
mendously preponderating percentage of the
crimes of violence committed In New York
are due to liquor. :.
Crime of Policeman.
few months ago a New York policeman
who had always been decent husband and
father until the rum began to down him
deliberately shot his wife to death In the
presence Of their children while Infatuated
with liquor, and as he was being led to q
cell he blurted out. 1T was the DEVILS joke
she was the best woman that ever
breathed." THE DEVILS joke was the text
that was used in a good many of the New
York pulpits on Sunday last The police
man who invented the phrase is going to-
the electric chair next month. The town
stood aghast the other day over the case
of a mechanic who fell under the sway of
the rum devil a couple of years ago. Up to-
that time he had been solid and square
citizen, but one night, when frenZied with
liquor, he Knocked his wife down and de-
liberately kicked one of her eyes out. She
kept quiet about the loss of her eye and re-
fused to have her rur-brutalized husband
arrested. Last week the fellow went home,f
sodden with drink, and. after forcing his
little eight-year-old girl to drink a whole
tumblerful of raw liquor, he knocked his
wife down and kicked out her remainingi
eye. In view of all of these atrocities, 1t
is not surprising that there considera-
BILE criticism of Bishop Potter last week for,
the easy manner with which he CLOSED