The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1910-09-10
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In New York city that carry on
an 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. It Is paying business as indeed.
are all businesses where the demand exceeds the
supply The demand for wild beasts is far greater
than the supply, and as a consequence prices are
good, and the dealers men of wealth. The extent
Of this demand may be appreciated when one con-
sders that most Of the great cities In the United
States have geological parks or menageries, and
that the animals are constantly being purchased
BY them Then there private collectors and
orcuses and the like that are ever ready to pay
ne 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 no dealer has ever succeeded in do
ing this. The gorillas die In few weeks In cap
tivity; they could not stand an ocean trip for
day.
A rusty old German liner lumbers noisily into
Quarantine, and then lies motionless on the tide.
An officer with broad, red. bewhskered face,
stands at the head of the companion ladder. and
he smiles peculiar smile, husky screaming
ululation rises from below. The animals are get
ting hungry" he explains you know we have
several hundred Of them on the tween decks
Want to see themY All right" In another minute
probably the most competent animal man In the
world is at our side. He is not a trainer or even
q tanner; he is more. He is sort of animal COOK,
and his special business is the personal manage
ment of wild animal tours. He receives them
lions tigers leopards, elephants, everything else
at Hamburg where they have been brought
fresh from their native wflds. and not only super
intends their shipment aboard vessel bound lor
New York but he sails with them to make sure
that they arrive safely and in good health. And
10 xt<x rfFO ia LOT
needs nice fresh live rabbit to tone up his sys-
tenn, this man 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 can never tell Just when the big boa Is 60
ing to rouse from his last gorge; when he does
he wants a toothsome young goat, and he wants
It quick It is a part of the animal mans duties
to anticipate the boas appetite with all possible
expedition.
He is quiet, unassuming man, with stoop
shoulders and bushy whiskers, and he leads the
way to the tween decks without a word. Per-
haps the uninitiated may believe that tour
through the animal section of freightcarrying
vessel is an unimpressiye experience. Well, let
them try 1t and see! This can be said at the out
set-it is somewhat different from menagerie.
It 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
Asia or elsewhere, and clapped into little barred
boxes not as large as dry goods cases; slammed
in and out of dark holes in the vessels of several
seas on the way to Hamburg then finally placed
in the stygian tween decks of a 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 bowls and
wines and the barks cease abruptly as the stran
gers enter. For they bring the smell of land, and
the great beasts sniff inquringly. and hungrily
too.
The cages lined both sides of the gloomy space
with little passageway between the boxes. Per
haps this passageway was three feet wide, not
more The cages were piled two and sometimes
three deep. In the bottom cage. for instance
would be tiger: In the next above a smaller ami
NAL, say, leopard or lynx, and above that a
parrot, or bunch of neerkats. Think of I'll A
threefoot passageway. with Aferocous animals
stretching along for 100 feet on all sides Tall
about nightmares! The reporters hair stiffened
out like so many pieces of wire, and he wished
most fervently that he had not come. 1t was more
agreeable. he felt, to see these animals in me
narerie where the cages are ample and the bar!
an inch thick.
one Of the animal men; these fellows sometime!
reach out for you"
Words such as these. of course. hardly tendes
to reassure.
Il really was too dark to see much. On
caught : view OF the cages stretching away Il
gloomy perspective until lost in the darkness. o