Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-06-09
GiRAFFEs HARD TO HANDLE.
Several Reasons Why Few Of Them
Are Ever on Exhibition.

Are Ever on Exhibition.
There is one order that never like
to till," said the animal collector.
THAT order is one for live giraffe.
Lions and gorillas aud tigers and
pythOns are easy to catch as compared
with a giraffe. The long-legged, long
necked beast can see. smell and hear
hunter miles away. And when a
herd smells danger, off it will dash
You can't catch a giraffe in a pit
fall. II would be certain 10 break its
legs or neck if il tumbled into a pit.
There isnot trap that would do. A trap
powerful enough to hold the strong
beast would crush its delicate legs like
pipe stems
so there is only one way to catch
CRATES alive, and a mighty hard way
it is.
They must be surrounded by driv-
ers and chased until they bring up,
weary and helpless, In an enclosure
made of netting and bamboo. That
means a drive of many miles, lasting
many days; for it would never do TO
drive them into the enclosure in the
first rush Of their terror They would
dash headlong into 1t and kill them /
selves.
This hunting Is terrible piece OF +.
business in itself. But after the CIR
affes are safely penned in the hardest
wCrk has only begun. That is to trans
Port the beasts through 500 or more
miles OF primeval wilderness to the
nearest seaport.
Men have tried all kinds of ways
TO Go this. even to driving the great
brutes. But that doesn't pay. The
risk OF accident is too great.
Il prefer the old-fashioned plan, to
pen the animals in a bamboo cage
open at the top so that their shoulders
and neck can stick out. Then the cage
is dashed to great bamboo poles, from
twenty to thirty feet long. AS many
natives as possible lift the four ends
to their shoulders and off goes Mr..
Giraffe on a free ride to the ocean
The CRATES legs break very easily
This is the ever present danger all
the way to the coast. But when port
is reached, it becomes still more
grave, for it Is in bringing the animal
aboard ship and during the storms
OF voyage that the collector may eX-
pect every moment that his precious
property will slip
And if it slips and gOe' down in its
narrow quarters, it's good-by giraffe,
for its legs haven't room enough In an
ordinary stall on ship and are almost
sure to double under it If il falls.
Bringing the animal aboard Is an
undertaking in itself. When the steam
winch begins to hoist the deep pen
with the bfute's helpless neck sticking
out like mast. the collectors heart
is In his mouth. for the CRATES head
may get tangled among the tackle OF
the ship or strike spar mast or
shroud, and then there will be wild
times.
And it isn't only broken limbs and
similar accidents that bother the CIR.
affe collector during the voyage A
giraffe IL one of the animals which
will break their hearts In captivity.
The poor brute will actually cry with
homesicknoss-at least have always
figured that it's homesickness.
SO catching CRATES isn't a bust
ness that man really bankers for
The reward is great, however, IL you
can succeed in carrying one home
alive, for the giraffe is to-day the most
costly animal. and a collector can get
almost any price within reason for a
good specimen"