Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-11-23


to become familiar with the habits ct
the beasts, cause they were to be in pas
charge, with the keepers of the diff
ferent kinds of animals to report to
pa. Nobody need tell me that ami
mails have no human instincts, and d.
not know how to take a joke. We
are apt to think that wild animals in
captivity are worrying over being
confined in cages, and gazed at and
commented on by curious visitors. and
that they dream of the free life they
lived in the jungles, and sigh to 20
back where they were captured. and
prowl around for food, but you can't
fool me. Animals that formerly had
to go around in the woods. hungry
half the time, and occasionally gorg-
ing themselves on a dead animal and
sleeping out in the rain in all kinds
of weather, know when they have
struck a good thing in a menagerie,
with clean straw to sleep in, and when
they are hungry all they have to do
is to sound their bugle and they have
pre-digested beefsteak and breakfast
food brought to them on a silver plat.
ter, and if the food is not to their lik-
ing, they set up a kick like a star
boarder at a boarding house. Their
condition in the show, in its changed
condition from that of their native
haunts, is like taking a hobo off the
trucks of a freight train and taking
him to the dining car of the limited,
and letting him eat to a finish. Peo-
pie ak about animals escaping from
captivity, and going back to the jun
giles, n humane societies shed tears
over the poor, sad-eyed captives, sigh
ing Tor their homes, but you turn
them loose at South Bend, and run
your circus train to New Albany
without them, and they would follow
the train and overtake it before the
evening performance the next day, and
you would find them trying to Dreak
into their cages again, and they would
have to be fed.
When pa and | went into the barn
where the cages were, to take an aC-
count of stock, and get acquainted
with our animals, they acted just like
the circus men did. when they saw
pas clothes. The animals were about
half asleep when WI went in, hut a
big lion bent one eye IN pa, and
then he rose up and shook himself,
and gave a roar and a cough that
sounded like he had the worst case Of
pneumonia, and he snorted a couple
OF times, as though he was say
Ing to the other animals: Here's
something that will kill you dead. and
| want you all to have a piece of it,
raw" and he prayed some more, and
all the animals joined in the chorus,
the big tiger lying down on his SOM
ach and waving his tail, and ~snarling
and showing his teeth like a cat that
has located a mouse hole, and the
tiger seemed to say: 80, l saw it first
and it's mine"
The hyena set up a laugh like a man
who is not tickled, but feels that it
is up to him to laugh at a funny
story that he can't see the point OF at
a banquet where Chauncey Depew tells
one OF his crippled jokes, and pa was
getting nervous A big grizzly bear
was walking delegate in his cage, and
he looked at pa as much as to say:
Hello, Teddy, | was not at home whea
you called in Colorado, but you get
in this cage, and l will make you think
thn Gnanich utor yuoc n C,,n1au- cnbnnI
picnic beside what you will get from
your uncle Ephraim," and a bob cat
jumped up into the top OF his cage
and snarled and showed his teeth, and
seemed to say: Bring on your whole
pack of dogs and | will eat them
alive"
Pa threw out his chest in front of
a monkey cage, and a monkey snatched
his watch, and then all the animals be-
gan to laugh at pa just like a lot OF lad
boysin school when visitors make a call.
Pa went around to visit all the ami
mails, officially, while | got interested
in a female kangaroo, with a couple
of babies, not more than three weeks
old, and l noticed the mother kan
CARGO made the old man kangaroo, her
husband. stand around, and he acted
just like some men | have seer who
were afraid to say their souls we're
their own in the presence of their
wives.
The female kangaroo is surely a
wonder, and seems to be built on
plans and specifications different from
any other animal, cause she has got
a fur-lined pouch on her stomach, -ust
like a vest, that she carries her young
in. When the babies are frightened
they make a hurry-up move towards
ma, the pouch opens, and they jump
in out of sight, like a gopher going
into its hole, and the mother looks
around as innocent as can be, as much
as to say: you can search me, |
don't know, honestly, where those
kids have gone, but they were around
here not more than a minute ago"
And when the fright is over the two
heads peep out Of the top OF the
pouch, and the old man grunts, as
much as to say: 20, come on out, there
is no danger, and let your ma have
a little rest, cause she is nervous"
and then the babies come out and run
around the cage, and sit up on their
hind feet, and look wise. That kann
CARGO pouch is a success, and | won.
der why nature did not provide
pouches for all animals to carry their
young in. | think Pullman must have
got his ideas for the upper and lower
berths of a sleeping car by seeing a
kangaroo pouch | I'm going to study
the kangaroo, and make friends with
The old man kangaroo, cause he looks
as though he had troubles OF his own.
Pa showed Up without any coat,
white ! was kangarooing, and there