Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1903-04-11
Wooden Menagerie
OF an Ohio Man.
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"Menagerie Farm" near Columbus,
o., looks like a scene out of Alice in
Wonderland"
Hugh T.. Jones is the owner and ope-
rator of the farm, and for years he
has been hard at work with jackknife,
saw and plane fashioning strange and
wonderful creatures. Snakes that can
not crawl, CRATES that have never
looked behind them, wild boars with
legs they can not bend and tails they
dare not move, elephants with no taste
for peanuts-such are the animals to
been seen at Menagerie Farm.
Mr.. Jones frankly admits he Is re-
sponsible, but has no apologies to of
fer. Although he has come within
speaking distance of so years he keeps
right on whiting, saving and plan
ing, always adding animals to his
menageries. When he wants an ele-
plant he does not correspond with
his agents over seas. He hunts up
good thick stick for body, a shapely
root for q trunk, smaller one for a
tail, small straight sticks for tusks
and legs, some broad pieces for ears,
and, going into his studio in the
woodshed, soon turns out an elephant
that cannot. be bribed with a barrel of
peanuts. To turn out a good, respec-
table looking snake requires a little
more research, for roots shaped in
snake fashion are not found every
day. But once in hand, Mr.. Jones
can turn out of such a root a snake
with more real characteristics than
would be supposed Mr.. Jones read
lily makes wild boars when he has the
material. A body with no frills about
1t, ceal-scuttleshaped snout, legs like
a Saw-horse, a pair of fanlike ears,
brace of wooden tusks and an apology
for a tail and there it is. CRATES are
not hard, either; little more root and
patience, and there the beast is, more
or less life-like.
But Mr.. Jones has not confined him
self entirely to animals in his so-called
artistic career. Occasionally he carves
a man, and although he cannot be said
to have improved on the original de-
sign, he has developed some points
that might be desirable in the real ar
ticle. One of his men is loom Paul"
mounted over the entrance to Menag-
erie Farm. He is associated with the
American eagle and a plebian rooster
on lookout duty at the farm. The gate
is plainly labeled with the distance
to Columbus and Lockbourne, in adj
dition to other information about the
postal service in that region.
Mr.. Jones gets almost as much fun
out of his farm as do his visitors.
In shirt sleeves and oyeralls the old
man welcomes the visitors to Men
agerie Farm and points out the differ
ent animals scattered about over the
lawn. relating the peculiarities and /
history of each. He allows the little
ones to ride the wild boar, but draws
the line at letting them climb the neck
Of the giraffe. Older persons are al
lowed to sit on the baby elephants
back and fan themselves in the shade
of the trees.
Mr.. Jones was born on board his
fathers ship when about three miles
off Alexandria, Egypt, and he had an
adventurous youth in the Holy Land. !
That may not be responsible for Me-
nagerie Farm, but the stories Mr..
Jones tells~of those days are interest
ing. 1t is forty years since he came
to America and set up his farm" in
Ohio.-New York Tribune.