Evening star., 1911-01-22
soecial CORRESPONDENCE of The Star.
NEW YORK. January q. L


~RP 1OULD you go to menagerte
or zoo just to see COW?
AAA don't mean a dOve-col-
wv ored sacred COW Of the Pun
jaub, or a COW with two
heads and four horns and six legs: moth
ing like that. I mean just plain, every
day, ruminating, vacant-eyed, cud-gnaw-
ing mooey-cow. Would you?
Of course not. But that's just what
thousands Of folks are doing here in New
York right now. OF course. they're little
folks. Equally. of course. they're little
folks that never before saw a COW. Which
that same is the answer.
A little while ago the director of the
Central Park Zoo suddenly bethought him
that, while there are quite a number of
folk who never saw Patagonian giant
sloth or a moon-eyed mandril. which are
quite expensive If not at ali neat things
for menageries to get hold of. there are
literally tens Of thousands Of children, for
whom. after all. menageries are assem-
bled. in New York who never in their lit
tie lives had seen so commonplace and
ordinary a specimen of animal as the
everyday bossy from which the milk
comes.
Now. that may sound farfetched, but
it's the exact truth. How could the tot
let's, mostly OF the alien variety, teem-
ingly inhabiting the thick-packed streets
of the East Side OF New York ever by
any chance get a glimpse OF a COW?
There are no detached cows that could or
even would meander home at the knell of
the parting day through Mulberry Bend
or Essex street No really Sedate or self
respecting COW would think of such a
thing, even If she had the chance.
*
And. when il comes 30 that, there are
almost as many tens of thousands of chill
dren OF decidedly a better and more
prosperous breed in New York who never
have clapped eye on such a thing as a
COW. All Of the folks in New York, you
know, even il they do pay as high as
$3O month for their flats. don't pull
up stakes in the summer time and fit to
trains that carry them through sections
Of pasture land where cows browse
There Is little If any slaughtering done
on Manhattan Island any more And
70 II Is quite easy to understand why
so many, many little children i'm this
queer Wen OF town never saw a COW
until the COW came TO Central Park, or
was brought there.
II was this consideration-and in ad-
oition to a consideration 1t was actually
An inspiration or genius-which caused
the director OF the Central Park Zoo
80 eHO ~" ioi tlldl iIStttutlOn. lie
got pretty fairsh specimen of a COW.
dolstein with quite characteristic mark
lngs. but, nevertheless just a COW that
stands stock still. with the exception OF
taii-swishings and jaw-workings, and Razes
straight ahead, regardless OF the scrutiny
OF many eyes. and gets balky and pes-
tiferous when she's being milked. lust ike
any cow. and says. Moo in q plair.fve
cold-tn-the-headish tone every once in a
while. "
Well. as soon as the newspapers an
nounced that there was a regular COW al
the central Park Zoo, the kidlets. gem
orally accompanied by their folks, began
10 appear there in hocks TO look at the
cow. The old world peoples inha hitting
the East Side. of course know All abouf
cows and milk and such next-to-the-soiI
things: and they were anxious to have
their young 'uns see the creature from
which the milk proceeds. The two-hornei
white rhinoceros never had Interested
them particularly: not enough TO
cause them to fetch their children ali
the way from the lower East Side to
look at It. But COW was different. A
COW was something: COW was a busi-
ness; q cow was something upon which
they had leaned from their earliest in
fancy.
And 80 you ought to see the wiyle-eyed
punches of children. with and without
their folks, who stand around the fence
OF the yard In which that Holstein COW
ruminates, II is as pathetic as IL is won-
derful, the immense interest with which
they watch the animal. Ii seems hard
for them ACTUALLY believe that the milk