The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-09
WILD ANIMAL FARMS.
Residents Object to Their Establish
ment for Fear of Danger.

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 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
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 are fathers-into a
rage Animal farm, indeed They II
have to establish it over his dead body,
if it comes. Is he going to sit idly by
while a bowling, growing, permanent
enagerie, with it's children eating an
imals, sets itself down near his homer
Try to start a farm and see!
Are you afraid of any of your wild
beasts?' a Tribune reporter asked the
proprietor of a farm not far from a
pretty Newark suburb.
Afraid of the animals? Well, rather
not" he replied. Il faced the angry
fathers of this little town when l be-
gan work on my stockade. faced
them, and live to tell about it. After
that I am afraid of nothing"
There are several logical reasons for
the existence of wild animal farms, but
perhaps the chief one is storage, AMI
mails are often shipped to New York
on speculatiOn. They have to be kept
somewhere until a buyer appears. They
cannot be slowed away in a dingy
warehouse, like bales of silk or bags
of coffee. Consequently they are driV-
en- into travelling cages and wheeled in
to those semi-wilds of Jersey which can
be found not far from the steamship
Then. animals have to be seasoned
before it is safe to bill them on the
posters of a travelling show or give
them a permanent cage in geological
park. They must have time to get ae-
customed to cage life and to receiving
the admiring attention Of visitors
A certain part Of each farm is given
over to the boarding department,
vaudeville "artiste' '-"the lady of the
lions" for instance-finds herself
with two or three weeks unlocked.
lap dogs can hardly be expected to
admit a cage of lions, and il is impos-
sibIe to sneak in lions and hide them
under the bed. There is nothing for
it but to send them off to the animal
farm and pay board Trained mon
keys, dog troupes and performing
bears fill the majority of the tables
at the wild beast boarding house.
They can give the West Twenty-third
street type-easily the most advanced
of human oarders-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 one sure. Sometimes the
long neck of a giraffe rises above the
stockade as a sign.
The door Of the stOckade is always
locked, and one must have business
within business which he can ex-
plain. 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 ex-
actly a welcome
One is struck by the absence of
signs. do not approach the cages. F"
''These animals must not be fed"
'Danger-beware. and the like are
the public that gets within the stock
ade 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.
These cages may look fiimsy." eX-
planned one of the most successful OF
those in the bushes, as he was show
ing a Tribune reported through the
shack he called the lion house, but
1t is because they are not polished up.
In reality they are just as strong as
the cages in Central park or in the
New York geological garden. The
stOckade is an added pTecaution, but
it is more to keep people out than
to keep the animals in. We have
watchmen on guard night and day,
and in case of fire they are ready to
shoot down the animals rather than
let them escape. New York Tri-
bune.