The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1910-08-19

rows Of glowing green eyes and great teeth with
the flash of red tongue writhing between. A zebra
switched the reporter with his tail and he turned,
only to jump almost out of his skin as elephant
touched him on the other shoulder with his trunk.
He was hardly over his scare when, zip! leopard
ached out after his coat tail.
In one way this lower deck section was a
good place to VISIT the joy and relief in being able
TO leave 1t furnished the biggest and most absorb
Ing sensations that this monotonous world has
held for the reporter in the last few months at
least
Bartels & Co.. are the largest dealers in wild
beasts In this country.
"A large wild animal dealer" said our inform
ant imports considerably more than a hundred
large wild animals each year. For instance, our
record for one year which l happen to have at
hand, shows that we imported in that period 20
elephants. IS camels 20 tigers lions, As leopards
20 pumas, Is panthers and hundreds of birds and
monkeys and small things Cubs-lion and tiger
and bear cubs-are in special demand by wealthy
families. They are reared and petted like Kittens
but IN the end they outgrow their playfulness and
the families who bought them from us are only
TOO willing to pay US to come and take them away
when they attain any sort Of growth We have
received many orders for hippopotami but the
beasts are hard to capture and ninety nine times
out of hundred they do not live through the
voyage. In fact, menageries throughout the coun.
try have to depend of late years upon the progeny
of the hippopotami in Central Park, New York,
for specimens.
Like all animal dealers, we maintain expert
animal catchers in all parts of the world and 1t Is
these men who fill the ships which arrive here.
The Hagenbecks have two collecting stations,
one In Calcutta and the other In Aden Arabia From
this point the animal catchers go forth and spend
months in the wids, returning to the stations with
their catch. We ourselves send catchers direct
from this country-at present we have men in
South America, on the hot sands of Africa, in the
Himalayas, and elsewhere, filling our orders One
Of them was recently in Arabia on a camel hunt,
two are now In the East Indies trapping tigers.
and so they are spread about in places where wild
beasts abide.
Sometimes we receive an order for large
number of elephants We telegraph this order to
our catchers in the elephant country, who, after
organizing the natives into hunting band pro-
coed to collect the desired number huge in
closure is built in one of the main elephant paths,
and at night when the big animals come to feed
they are driven into the Enclosure or keddah by
means Of fires and shouts and the firing Of guns.
Beaters on tame elephants then ride into the In
closure and rope the beasts, and in short time
they become accustomed to being led about. Ele-
plants are naturally mild, and were this not the
case they never could be captured, because OF
their great hulking strength.
"The natives also captured elephants in pits,
barbarously cruel method in which more than
so per cent. are killed by the fall. The s14nal
catchers take tigers and lions in pits ALSO They
dig hole, cover 1t with mating and place this
mating dead goat. At night the lion or tiger
steals from his lair. sees the goat and springs
upon It, The mating, of course, gives way and
down into the pit goes the roaring beast Then the
catchers run up and throw nets into the pit and
the struggling animal soon becomes hopelessly en-.
tangled. Moses are then lowered into the pit and
the beast is dragged out to the cage Six out OF
every ten are killed In this process. Leopards and
jaguars and the smaller animals are caught in