Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-26

beasts are without a presentable ground
work on which to wear their skins. Be
cause of these two handicaps they are
required to wait without the pale of So
cety.
In the meantime the taxidermists are
toiling to improve the appearance of their
charges and enable them to pass the
hypercritical attentions OF the fast1dlous
creatures living in the Smithsonian.
There 10 combination bath, containing
everything found In a drug store except
the clerk and the cash register. in which
the hides are being picked. At hrst
glance 1t does not seem to be an improve
ment on the original untanned leather
odor. 1t is a pungent mixture, this bath,
guaranteed to kill at twenty yards and
penetrate at $50 The average beast after
swimming around for while would be-
come. one would think, pessinistic and
discouraged, and long to return to his
original state Of blissful disreputableness.
Nevertheless the professors insist that
the kirk1.k-dik-dik and the lions, the
hartebeest the wildebeest and the plain,
ordinary beest slos haround in the pierre
ingly odorous pool until their skins and
they are ready to join the immobile and
respectable caravan which sits immova-
BILE within glass cases.
st
1t will be about six months, the scien-
fists estimate, before the kirkdick-beg
pardon, dik-is able to leave the prepa-
ration. II the dear creature has q good
hide and not one OF these cheap. marked
down creations they expect that he will
Immediately be placed upon his little frame
and neatly tucked under his glass case.
II not. he has got to undergo a session of
hauling and stretching, ironing and pull
ing that will worry his sensitive soul and
cause him to radiate joy only when he
thinks of the merry chase he gave Theo-
dore before Theodores bullet began to
chase him.
Then there is the lion. Any one of
the many lions will do to illustrate A
lion, Horace, is an animal that wears
something resembling floor mop around
its neck. At the end of any stated period
Of time the lions ruching. left to itself.
becomes straggly. unkempt and generally
in need Of renovation. The lions sent on
to the Smithsonian taxidermists, while
fine specimens-as has been hereinbefore
mentioned-have whiskers under their
barber to despair. Also they have many
skinned places on the diverse side of
their hides. caused undoubtedly by either
some quarrel with another gentleman or
contact with one of the thorny bushes
growing near Nairobi.
These kings have a large amount of
general cleaning and scrubbing coming
to them, and they little realize now how
extensive it is to be. When the visitor
passes in front of their cages he will be-
hold them in naughty upright attitudes.
Their names will have been neatly
combed and parted, giving them a CIV
ilized. not to say cultured. air. The ex-
preston of distress and annoyance Wis
ible on their countenances now will have
been removed, and in it's place will be a
constant vacuous and CLASSY smile sug-
gestive of breakfast food advertisement
or an latter taking" sign.
When this shall have been accomplished,
when dirt and disrepute shall have given
way to cleanliness and chaste character.
the lions will be accepted as animals with
social standing worthy of association
with the ponderous buffalo and the