The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1906-08-02
GEOLOGICAL GARDENS.
G. A. Wood Writes an Entertaining
Description of the National
Geological Gardens.
Washington, D. c., July 10, 1906.

Aedf MUS long Ulule ago i
promised to tell you about the sights to
be seen at the great National Geological
Gardens here in Washington, but until
last Sunday it was not handy for me to.
get out and look around.
After taking in the show and think
ing the matter over, have come to the
conclusion that l can't do any better
than to give you transcript of the
shorthand report made of the CONVEX
sation of our colored guide. Darkies,
you know, are fond of big words, but
are not always accurate in using the
right word in the right glace. Any
little breaks of that kind you must
overlook, because we paid him only
twenty-five cents for his days work,
and of course he couldn't be careful of
his language for that sum. ! under
stand that the poetry with which he
ended his talk is not original, but it
sure fits in we'll with the rest of the
stuff.
THE SPIEL OF THE GUIDE.
"Now, ladies' and gentlemen-and
children, we have now entered,-
through the back-door, as it were-the
National Geological Gardens, which are
about 166 acres of land in the southern
part of Rock Creek Park set aside for
the amusement and education of the
children. You see that the park is very
rough, with beautiful little streams
falling down the ravines and loafing
along the flats. What's that young
man?-you 'don't call this rough!" well,
you must live out there in Colorado,
where the sun sets at two o'clock in
the afternoon and the chickens don't
get up till ten in the morning. Now,
I'll bet this kid here from Iowa would
call it mountainous wouldn't you?
of course! Portions of the park, you
will see, have suffered from the depre-
dations of the landscape gardener, but
for the most part it remains just as
Nature, saying to herself, "It is we'll
done!", withdrew, content with her
handiwork.
Down here at the left are few bears,
whose den is cut out of the solid rock,
SO natural and homelike that they think
they are still free in their native
mountains. Next to them are the seals.
On hot day like this, when have to
pilot cheap party through the Zoo, l
always envy the seals in their cool
swimming hole. Oh, no, wasn't trying
to be personal at all.
This pond over to the right is occu-
pied by the pelican and his relatives,
the long-legged, long-billed marsh
birds; and here in the river is the beau
tiful swan. What lovely neck she
has for ice cream, hey! kids? They say
the swan sings but once and that's just
before she dies. guess that's true all
right, but as these swans here haven't
died very often, can't say for sure.
This way, ladies and gentleman-an and
children; We'll go around this hill here
and see the wonderful llama brought
from the plains of South America; also
herd Of elk from the great woods of
Canada. Next door to the llama is a
poor, lonesome burro, wandered away
from his home in the Rocky Mountains.
O, of course, he's not interesting to you
kids that live oet there where the grass
dosen't grow,but tell you he's mighty
curious bird to the little Washington
dams.
Well stop here and rest awhile where
the water pours over the rocks in imi-
tation of Niagara, and then We'll take
long, hard pwll up the hill to the
House of the Elephant.
Ah, there he is! He's not as big as
old Jumbo or the side of house OK.
actly, but he's a whopper. Did you
ever hear of the Wise Men OF Gotham
that went out. to "see" the elephant:
Gotham people often go out to "see the
elephant" but this was real elephant
Well, there were six of these wise mer
and they were all blind as bats. The
first one felt of the elephants tail and
declared the animal was like rope
The second stumbled onto his leg and
swore the elephant was very like a
pillar. The third ran up against the
animals side and argued that the ele.
phant was like wall. The fourth one
got hold of the beasts ear and was
sure the elephant was like a fan. The
fifth and sixth found other parts-the
trunk and tusks, believe-and formed
ideas just as ridiculous, and they
argued and quarreled and spat over the
question and would have scratched one
another's eyes out, if they had had any
eyes to scratch out. So you see it
makes good deal Of difference how a
fellow looks at a thing as to how ii
seems to him. When you kids grow uI
and get to arguing politics or religion
with some other fellow, don't you get