The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-15
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
APPROXIMATIONS BUREAU
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, b. c.
SCIENCE MADE POPULAR.


day dozens of sightseers visit the Ma
tional Museum. Usually. they intend
to spend only few minutes on their
way from the capitol to the treasury
just to see if it compares favorably
with the picture on the post card
and they end by staying hours. For
here. at last, science has condescend-
ed to speak the language of the peo-
pie. At last natural history has been
made natural.
Instead of stiff, stuffy figures on
square pedestaIs, there are life-hke
tive scenery An animal is shown
treading the same kind of ground he
trod in real life-some times the &C
tuaI ground itself. which has been
gathered and shipped in with the
specimen. The bushes, brambles and
stones that were about him in his
native habitat are about him now. In
short the visitor does not have TO
read a card to know that an animal
is native to Arctic regions OF the
Science Made Easy.
If YOU observe very closely the Wis
itors meandering thru the animal col
lections you will find that While a
few of them do not read the cards
attached to the cases, the majority OF
them do. Their curiosity is aroused
by the various details presented IN
each group. And this is the reward
Of science for having made itself
popular Instead of helping to edu-
cate a few students and interest a
few professors, it is helping to edu-
Gates the masses. This is the triumph
of the new taXidermy.
The new art of taxidermy was not
solved, however, without a strong pro
test from the scientific conservatives
For years taXidermiSt was little
more than an upholsterer. He stuffed
his animals with straw. stuck couple
of glass eyes in each head, and cons1d-
cred his work finished. II was enough
to know that any scientist visiting the
museum would recognize the species.
Then a few naturalists began to enter
the profession. To them the ordinary
stuffed animal was revolving, and they
began to apply their skill in taXidermy
towards achieving more natural ef-
fects.
The Ta 'dcrmiSt Specialist.
There is some doubt as to who made
the first animal group, but it is certain
that the stir it caused was no less than
that caused by the first Cubist pic
ture Now the newer taxidermy is
practiced all over the country, altho
some mu seums still cling to the old
methods. The modern taXidermiSt is
many things besides. He is an anato-
mist a naturalist. and sometimes an
explorer and collector as well. A
Smithsonian taXidermist is now in
Australia gathering specimens which
he will later mount.
The taXidermy work connected with
the National Museum is carried on in
a large two-StOry shed behind the
Smithsonian building. Most people
mistake it for a stable. Inside, no
effort has been made to maintain the
careful neatness of all the other gov
eminent scientific quarters. The floor
is splattered with white plaster; cans
of paint and paint brushes are strewn
about the floor, and the walls are
decorated with all sorts of skins and
plaster casts. from monkeys to sea
cows. Strapped to the ceiling Is a
California whale fourteen feet long.
The other day a young taxidermist was
at work on the plaster cast of big
wolf, whose beautiful yellowish-
skin hung on a rack above him. On
a table was its skull, containing a set
of teeth that had once been the terror
of a certain part of Montana.
a Wolf Who Was a Terror.
This animal had been captured only
after a long and arduous campaign
waged against him by Montana horse
owners, whose stock he had killed in
large numbers. For months he match
ed Ills cunning against the CTd1IlUSSS
of ranchmen, and always won. In Tain
did they set traps for him. He could
not be induced to touch poisoned
meat,=and he could sense an iron trap
a mile off, having once lost part of
his foot in one. But success made him
careless, and eventually the ranches
triumphed, even as they triumphed
over Mr.. Seton-Thompson's king
Lobo." One evening a hunter dragged
his carcass into the village amid the
acclamations of the relieved populace,
and Montana's reign of "terror was
over.
Soon this wolf, in all the ferocious-
ness of his ferocious personality, will
be behind a glass case in the National
Museum, causing nervous chills to
wander up and down the spines of
little boys and girls. For so Efe-like
are the figures produced by the new
taxidermy that visitors to the museum
never fail to cast a few awed glances
at some of the specimens. The other
day little girl grabbed her mothers
hand as they stoodA gazing at the
group of Roosevelt lions. She knew
they weren't real, she said, but she
was glad the glass case was there.
The young taxidermist who is max
ing this wolf first made a clay model
of one he observed in the National
zoo. But it did not suit him.. It
showed the wolf with his head point
ed in a mild inquiring attitude not at
all in keeping with his Montana his
tory. So the taXidermist made an
: other model, which shows him prowl-
ing along with his head lowered and
/ his teeth barred in a snarl. The teeth
effect will be procured by using the
actual skull, and a bit of Montana
| scenery will be reproduced as his
{ background.
In ignominious proximity to the
| skin of this erstwhile terrible charac-
! or or tho raCly IN tho Cn0ifhSnr,fo N
| taXidermy studio is pigskin, which
4 is the next in order to be mounted.
/ THE pig will be much easier to mount
/ than the WOLF said the taxidermist
| for l have his bones" And he held
/ up a vertebra yard long. which was
! once the pigs back, and a few miscel-
! laneous bones which doubtless once
performed the duty Of legs. ''An I
shall have to do" he continued, lis
to put this skeleton together, cover ii
! y Mo -feV- 80 rrl,r Il