River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-08-04
WILD BEASTS CARED FOR.
Show Animals without Engagements
Put Up in Stockades in
New Jersey.

Dwellers in New Jersey are fighters
from the very nature of things. There
is the mosquito first and foremost; the
nightly sprint from the ferry to the
seats in the suburban train and the
ever present necessity of defending
their chosen places of residence against
the attacks of the Manhattanites. But
there is something else that will bring
them to arms much more rapidly than
any of these righteous causes, says a
New York exchange.
Let a wild animal farm try to attach
itself to the outskirts of a New Jersey
settlement and one will see the Jersey
man at his fighting best. The mere
mention of the possibility of the COM
ing of an animal farm sends every
father in the town-and practically all
of the men over 25 who are fathers
into rage. Animal farm, indeed.
They'll have to establish it over his
dead body if it comes. Is he going to
sit idly by while bowling, growing,
permanent menagerie, with it's children
eating animals, sets itself down near
his home? Try to start farm and
seei
"Are you afraid of any of your wild
beasts?" a reporter asked the proprie-
tor of a farm not far from a pretty Ne
wark suburb.
afraid of the animals. Well rather
not" he replied. 81 faced the angry
fathers of this little town when I be-
gan work on my stockade. I faced
them, and live to tell about it. After
that am afraid of nothing"
There are several logical reasons for
the existence of wild animal farms,
but perhaps the chief one is storage.
Animals are often shipped to New
York on speculation. They have to be
kept somewhere until buyer appears.
! They cannot be stored away in dingy
warehouse, like bales of silk or bags of
coffee. Consequently they are driven
into travelling cages and wheeled into
those semi-wilds of Jersey which can
be found not far from the steamship
docks.
Then, animals have to DE seasoned"
before it is safe to bill them on the
posters of travelling show or give
them permanent cage in geological
park. They must have time to get &C
customed to cage life and to receiving
the admiring attention of visitors.
A certain part of each farm is given
ever to the boarding department. A
vaudeville ''artist''-"the lady of the
lions" for instance-finds herself with
two or three weeks unlocked. Hotels
that draw the line at cats and lap dogs
can hardly be expected to admit cage
of lions, and it is impossible to sneak
in lions and hide them under the bed.
There is nothing for 1t but to send
them off TO the animal farm and pay
board. Trained monkeys, dog troupes,
and performing bears fill the majority
of the tables at the wild beast boarding
house. They can give the West Twen-
ty-third street type-easily the most
advanced of human boarders-pointers
in growing at the food.
A high stockade of thick planking is
the most certain sign of an animal
farm. If one is in doubt, there is
series of growls from the lion house
or trumpeting from the elephant pen to
make sure. Sometimes the long neck
of giraffe rises above the stockade as
sign.
The door to the stockade is always
locked and one must have business
within, business which he can explain,
before it is opened. Every newcomer
calls forth an angry chorus of protest,
the biting of bars, Juggling Of chains,
and the like. 1t is not exactly well
come.
One is struck by the absence of signs.
"Do not approach the cages" "These
animals must not be fed" Danger
Beware!" and the like are utterly
wanting. The small portion of the
public that gets within the stockade
does SO at its own risk
There has never been an outbreak
from one of the farms in the vicinity
of New York, and the men in charge
deserve some credit for the care and
precautions which they take.