Evening star., 1924-04-06
By CHARLES MAYER.

A COMMISSION from the King of
~ Siam was big stroke of luck
~ for any man. If the king had
confidence in him, he was
given IA free hand and the order 10
spare no expense. | was delighted,
therefore, when ! got letter from
Mr.. John Anderson, then in Singa-
pore, telling me that royal gift OF
wild animals was to he sent from
Siam to Alfonso of Spain, and that
1 was to be responsible for them. l
decided to go to Bangkok, to see that
the animals were started right and
to stick by them every foot of the
way.
The commission fell in we'll with
my general plans. The monsoon sea-
son would soon be breaking, and this
always stopped my business of ami
NAL shipping. l liked to spend the
winters in Europe, and usually man
aged to do it,
When got back to Singapore after
my successful roundup of elephants,
! found out that a small coast steam
er was leaving for Bangkok the next
day.
had a fine trip to Bangkok. arriv-
ing there in four days. The king
was away at the time. He had a
habit of going on short trips to Singa-
pore and Java. So | conducted my
negotiations in regard to the wild an
inals with Prince Damrong, the
brother of the king, who had the
title of minister of the interior. 1t
was arranged that I was to have
$2,506 Mexican for my work, all ex-
penseS paid. and firSt-claSs passage to
Spain and back to Singapore. He re-
ferred to a successful delivery of ami
mails l had made for the king, years
before, to the old Austrian emperor.
When / inspected the present ship
meHt ! found that it consisted of two
ugers-fne big oneS-six leopards,
four of them spotted and two black
fellows; enc tapir, four civet cats and
four small tiger eats, two gibbons
and twenty other monkeys, some of
them long tailed and some pig-tailed.
Enough there to start a small zoo.
There is a great variety of animals
to be found in Siam, and they have
been sent as royal presents all over
Europe. Queen Victoria got her share
and Edward VII and even the late
Czar of Russia-cat animals can stand
a great deal of cold.
X 4 * y
THE animals of which 1 was to take
charge were housed in a shed in
the courtyard of the prison. They
were in cages ridiculous from a ship
per's point Of view-great iron things
with half-rotten wooden bottoms. A
single leopard, for example, was in
closed in space six feet by six feet,
made of iron bars not much more
than an inch apart, There was enough
room for the animal to injure himself
IN a half dozen ways, the floor on
which he stood was unfit for travel
and the weight of the whole thing
absurd.
I should be obliged to transship the
animals at Singapore, where local
steamers lie out in the roads. /
should have to have the cages loaded
on lighters. unloaded on shore. put on
bullock carts and loaded again on to
a big liner for their trip to Europe
Where this sort of handling is neces-
sary, every added pound means added
II was no WOnQeT IndG the
King of Siam had had bad luck with
his shipments.
/ decided to have the best Chinese
carpenter I could get hold of make
an entirely new set of cages, and do
1t quickly.
I made a diagram and let it be un-
dcrstoed that the order was for the
king. The cages were to be of heavy
seraia wood, enc and a half inches
thick-top, sides and bottom-and
the ends closed with ene-inch iron
bars. They were to be sufficiently
high to allow the animal to stand,
but not wide enough for him to turn
round in. Each beast was to have
a separate cage, except the monkeys,
which we're put into two large boxes,
one for the long-tailed and one for
the short tailed variety. For monkeys
there must be enough space to climb
about in, but with the cat animals a
narrow cage, while they are on the
road, gives the best results. The
beasts are stiff for time when they
arrive, but they soon Timber up. 1
had wooden covers made to be used
over the barred ends of the cages
while they were being handled Air