The Washington herald., 1918-01-29


every whine, below, hiss and bark OF
Importance at the Central Park me-
nagerie has been sufficient to page
Bill Snyder, the principal keeper. sny-
der IS retiring now after thirty years
OF active service.
For years he has found It conven-
lent to sit up with an I'll rhinoceros,
remove the ingrowing nails from a
lion in the dead OF night or cheer
snakes when they seemed to lack pep.
Bill has always kept his place and
the animals were fastened in theirs.
Snyder has performed many Oper-
ations on animals after midnight. II
was o'clock in the morning when
Jerry, the Rocky Mountain goat, had
a croquet ball removed from his ab-
surd throat. and only last week Tom.
the hard boiled turtle, had his corns
whitfield at dawn.
Bill got the animal habit back in
1883 when he Joined the Barnum and
Bailey curcus. After listening to the
circus men-believing every word Of
1.-THE was seen marching down any
Main street in the East on circus day
leading the greatest elephant OF all
time. Jumbo. He was with Jumbo
when she was killed at St John, n. B.
in 1855.
In all his years at the park, Bill
only once has been close to death.
Fifteen years ago Bombay. the big
two horned rhinocerous, got an at
tack of whooping cough. .B,fIhay
died and an elephant named Little Tip
was selected to drag the carcass over
to the sheep pasture in the park.
Little Tip was sleepless, irritable and
didn't care much for the job. In the
midst OF the funeral procession she
turned upon "Bilr and, grasping him
in her trunk. threw him high in the
air. He came down unconscious and
was six weeks in the hospital.
The old keepers say that all ami
mails can be made friendly If you can
get them grateful to you. You can
do 1t with all of them but the leo
pard and as Bill puts it the leopard
never did and never will have any
culture nohow.
Is there a sixth sense OF journalism?
The talk veered to this subject around
the coal oil stove at the New York
Press Club the other day. Many
reporters have had exalted lunches
that have turned out big yarns.
Julian Ralph, one of the stars on the
Sun in the old days, is declared to
have had this sixth sense. Ralph was
a member of the Sun staff along with
David Graham Phillips, Oscar Il. Dav-
is, Samuel Hopkin Adams, Z. w.
Townsend, Arthur Brisbane and
Joseph Villa.
He was walking up Broadway one
day when suddenly a current of news
came up from a cellar and enveloped
him. He felt a difference in the tenn
perature c. the air. The current SEEM
ed to stop him, to turn him around
and force him to descend some stairs
which reached up to the street by his
side.
He ran down the steps and as he
did so a pistol shot sounded in his
ears. One man had shot another and
he found himself right in the midrift
of a first page story.
Sam Bernard stood on Broadway
watching two subway mechanics
swinging giant hammers on a chisel
held by a third and the men were
taking full arm swings at that, never
missing a stroke.
Pretty good, eh?" commented
friend from the sidewalk.
Just amateurs in this neighborhood,
Just amateurs" decided the come
dian starting for the Knockers Cor
ner at the Lambs Club.
In all the depression of workless
days. the greatest optimism was found
in the slum districts of New York.
The poor met the situation with stout
hearts. They have been lashed by
the gales Of life before. They have
crossed burning gobis Of heart-hunger
and loneliness and yet somehow. In
all the waiting and toiling, they have
not forgotten how to laugh. They
cracked jokes about the heatess
homes and made the best OF the whole
situation