Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-08-20

am~~'1@a~@A1~--~ immense business in the trans
portation of animals fresh from
the jungle. And this number, of course, does not
include such immense foreign animal firms the
Hagenbacks. 1t is a paying business, indeed
all businesses where the demand exceeds the
supply. The demand for wild beasts is far greater
than the supply, and a consequence prices
good, and the dealers of wealth The extent
of this demand may be appreciated when one
siders that most of the great cities in the United
States have geological parks menageries, and
that the animals constantly being purchased
by them. Then there private collectors and
circuses and the like. that are ever ready to pay
the highest prices for desirable animals The ami
NAL dealer who could secure and bring to this
country three or four gorillas would make small
fortune. But dealer has succeeded in do
ing this. The gorilas die in few weeks in cap
ttvity; they could not stand ocean trip for
day.
rusty old German liner lumbers noisily into
Quarantine, and then lies motionless the tide
An officer, with broad red, bewhiskered face
stands the head of the companion ladder, and
he smiles peculiar smile, husky screaming
ululation rises from below. The animals get
ting hungry" he explains; you know we have
several hundred of them the tween decks.
Want to them? All right In another minute
probably the most competent animal man in the
world is at side. He is not a trainer or even
tanner; he is more. He is sort of animal cock.
his special business is the personal manage
of wild animal He receives them
lions tigers, leopards elephants, everything else
at Hamburg, where they have been brought
fresh from their native wilds and not only super
intends their shipment aboard vessel bound for
New York but he sails with them to make sure
that they arrive safely and in good health And
be sure that if the tiger gets off his diet and
needs nice fresh live rabbit to tone up his sys-
tenn, this will be aware of the fact almost
before the tiger is-and, ergo, nice big jumping
bunny is sacrificed in accordance with the pre-
cepts of wild beast materia medica- Then, too.
one tell just when the big boa is 60
ing to rouse from his last gorge; when he does
he wants toothsome young goat, and he wants
it quick. 1t is part of the animal mans duties
anticipate the boa's appetite with all possible
expedition
He is a quiet, unassuming man, with stoop
shoulders and bushy whiskers, and he leads the
way to the tween decks without word Per
haps the uninitiated may believe that a tour
through the animal section of freight-carrying
vessel is unimpressive experience. Well. let
them try it and see! This can be said at the out
set-it is somewhat different from a menagerie.
1t means something to come into close proximity
to a hundred and odd wild animals that have been
ruthlessly snatched from their lairs In Africa or
Asfa rzsIsewheres and claRped INTO little barred
boxes, not as large dry goods cases. slammed
in and out dark holes in the vessels of several
seas on the way to Hamburg; then finally placed
in the stygian tween decks of German hooker
The swinging cross seas of the North Atlantic
have not improved their tempers, or their nerv-
Gus systems and the visitor at Quarantine is
quickly impressed with that fact. The howls and
whfnes and the banks abruptly as the stran-
gers enter For they bring the smell of land, and
the great beasts sniff inquiringly, and hungrily.
The cages lined both sides Of the gloomy space.
with a little passageway between the boxes. Per-
haps this passageway three feet wide, not
more The cages piled two and sometimes
three deep. In the bottom cage, for instance,
would be tiger; in the next above smaller ami
NAL say, leopard q lynx and above that a
parrot, or a bunch of neerkats- Think of it. A
three-foot passageway. with ferocious animals,
stretching along for 100 feet all sides. Talk
about nightmares The reporters hair stifened
nioc of wire md he wis
most fervently that he had not come. 1t more
agreeable he felt to these animals in me-
nagerie where the cages are ample and the bars
inch thick
Better keep in the middle of the aisle,' says
of the animal men; these fellows sometimes
reach out for YOU
Words such these. of course, hardly tended
to reassure
1t really was too dark to see much One
caught a view of the cages stretching away In
gloomy perspective until lost in the darkness, of