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Show Inuwrtation of Vild Arsi iia3 f HE return of Colonel VfTv. Tvll ll (ft VW I'YltH Roosevelt and party f1 AW FASSHnGER ' from Africa, with the lffe f 4 Ml Li cargo of animal sped- Ifl YA & Mf mens which had been XjjM'KX killed during their In- NTttv?! 'iSf'Sx traps just as mice are caught, and vaslon of the jungle, Siii monkeys are also trapped. Such great caused a New York 3B .VS rO beasts as the rhinoceros and the like dealer In wild beasts N. --WWi ' "S-V y- are not captured by the animal men, ,l J ' to talk interestingly .of the bust- rgij!M but are secured from native poten- v A ness in which his firm is engaged. Mfm0WWi0 --' tates, who give them away as a mark 42fcViJ There are nearly a dozen firms WMmM& of special esteem or barter them for tf$Cl in New York city that carry on VPS brass and other trifling but showy an immense business in the trans- jlt gewgaws. portation of animals fresh from ipfr "We take comparatively few lions the jungle. And this number, of course, does not from the wilds now. It is cheaper to include such immense foreign animal firms as the buy them in captivity. Polar, griz- Ilagenbacks. It is a paying business, as indeed, V&!wffi0W zly and Russian bears also are mainly are all businesses where the demand exceeds the MfjMW f bought and sold in captivity; but oth- supply. The demand for wild beasts is far greater 1 MfkmW er wild beasts are taken in their than the supply, and as a consequence prices are IvVV raM'l0I Wm- I lairs" good, and the dealers men of wealth. The extent irJMiMfsWrW of this demand may be appreciated when one con- V'SKS''bI i"CirSL WflsaSr" eiders that most of the great cities in the United .fWpf Ml ilWWh' I FOOD IN LONDON IS CHEAPER. States have zoological parks or menageries, and ffM,Si' rjfff" that the animals are constantly being purchased ii'MwIyW'M "For many years," said a man who by them. Then there are private collectors and M Ml ?PM$I Wilf' V TV came back from a European tour the circuses and the like, that are ever ready to pay J Xanmnmr other day, according to an exchange, the highest prices for desirable animals. The ani- MfK f ."I have been in the habit of getting mal dealer who could secure and bring to this $ WmmW. XXS- viin into an argument with friends after country three or four gorillas would make a small ftl I fUPHMTJ my return about the prices of food in fortune. But no dealer has ever succeeded in do- WU MtY ' " the best restaurants in New York and Ing this. The gorillas die in a few weeks in cap- A WffllJ ('- London I have been contending that tivity; they could not stand an ocean trip for a 11 New York restaurants were putting traps just as mice are caught, and monkeys are also trapped. Such great beasts as the rhinoceros and the like are not captured by the animal men, but are secured from native potentates, poten-tates, who give them away as a mark of special esteem or barter them for brass and other trifling but showy gewgaws. "We take comparatively few lions from the wilds now. It is cheaper to buy them in captivity. Polar, grizzly griz-zly and Russian bears also are mainly bought and sold in captivity; but other oth-er wild beasts are taken in their lairs." HE return of Colonel . f Roosevelt and party Ci from Africa, with the tifiWl cargo of animal sped- yM&st-mens yM&st-mens which had been killed during their in- vaslon of the jungle, caused a New York dealer in wild beasts i k i to talk interestingly of the busl-v busl-v M I ness in which his firm is engaged. OjQjwLrl There are nearly a dozen firms (gSjjS-tl in New York city that carry on ' an Immense business in the trans portation of animals fresh from the jungle. And this number, of course, does not include such immense foreign animal firms as the Ilagenbacks. It is a paying business, as indeed, are all businesses where the demand exceeds the supply. The demand for wild beasts is far greater than the supply, and as a consequence prices are good, and the dealers men of wealth. The extent of this demand may be appreciated when one considers con-siders that most of the great cities in the United States have zoological parks or menageries, and that the animals are constantly being purchased by them. Then there are private collectors and circuses and the like, that are ever ready to pay the highest prices for desirable animals. The animal ani-mal dealer who could secure and bring to this country three or four gorillas would make a small fortune. But no dealer has ever succeeded in doing do-ing this. The gorillas die in a few weeks in captivity; cap-tivity; they could not stand an ocean trip for a day. A rusty old German liner lumbers noisily into Quarantine, and then lies motionless on the tide. An officer, with broad, red, bewhiskered face, stands at the head of the companion ladder, and he smiles a peculiar smile, as a husky screaming ululatlon rises from below. "The animals are get-r ting hungry," he explains; "you know "we hare several hundred of them on the 'tween decks. Want to see them? All right:" In another minnte probably the most competent animal man in the world is at our side. He is not a trainer, or even a tamer; he Is more. He is a sort of animal cook, and his special business is the personal management manage-ment of wild animal tours. He receives them lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, everything else at Hamburg, where they have been brought fresh from their native wilds, and not only superintends super-intends their shipment aboard a vessel bound for New York, but he sails with them to make sure that they arrive safely and in good health. And be sure that If the tiger gets off on his diet and needs a nice fresh live rabbit to tone up his system, sys-tem, this man will be aware of the fact almost before the tiger is and, ergo, a nice big jumping bunny is sacrificed in accordance with the precepts pre-cepts of wild beast materia medica. Then, too, one can never tell just when the big "boa Is going go-ing to rouse from his last gorge; when he does he wants a toothsome young goat, and he wants it quick. It is a part of the animal man's duties to anticipate the boa's appetite with all possible expedition. He is a quiet, unassuming man, with stoop shoulders and bushy whiskers, and he leads the way to the 'tween decks without a word. Perhaps Per-haps the uninitiated may believe that a tour through the animal section of a freight-carrying vessel is an unimpressive experience. Well, let them try it and see! This can be said at the out-get out-get it is somewhat different from a menagerie. It means something to come into close proximity to a hundred and odd wild animals that have been ruthlessly snatched from their lairs in Africa or Asia, or elsewhere, and clapped into little barred boxes, not as large as dry goods cases; slammed in and out of dark holes in the vessels of several seas on the way to Hamburg; then finally placed In the stygian 'tween decks of a German hooker. The swinging cross seas of the North Atlantic have not improved their tempers, or their nervous nerv-ous systems, and the visitor at Quarantine is quickly ir.1 pressed with that fact. The howls and whines and the barks cease abruptly as the strangers stran-gers enter. For they bring the smell of land, and the great beasts sniff inquiringly, and hungrily, too. The cages lined both sides of the gloomy space, with a little passageway between the boxes. Perhaps Per-haps this passageway was three feet wide, not more. The cages were piled two and sometimes three deep. In the bottom cage, for instance, would be a tiger; in the next above a smaller animal, ani-mal, say, a leopard or a lynx, and above that a parrot, or a bunch of neerkats. Think of it! A three-foot passageway, with ferocious animals, stretching along for 100 feet on all sides. Talk about nightmares! The reporter's hair stiffened out like so many pieces of wire, and he wished most fervently that he had not come. It was more agreeable, he felt, to see these animals in a me- nagerie where the cages are ample and the bars . an inch thick. "Better keep in the middle of the aisle," says one of the animal men; "these fellows sometimes reach out for you." Words such as these, of course, hardly tended to reassure. It really was too dark to see much. One caught a view of the cages stretching away in k ".corny perspective until lost in the darkness, of ' i rows of glowing green eyes and great teeth with the flash of red tongue writhing between. A zebra switched the reporter with his tall and he turned, only to jump almost out of his skin as an elephant touched him on the other shoulder with his trunk. He was hardly over his scare when, zip! a leopard eached out after his coat tail. In one way this lower deck section was a good place to visit; the joy and relief in being able to leave it furnished the biggest and most absorbing absorb-ing sensations that this monotonous world has held for the reporter in the last few months at least. Bartels & Co.. are the largest dealers in wild beasts in "this country. "A large wild animal dealer." said our informant, inform-ant, "imports considerably more than a hundred large wild animals each year. For instance, our record for one year which I happen to have at hand, shows that we imported in that period 20 elephants, 35 camels, 20 tigers, 5 lions, 45 leopards, 20 pumas, 18 panthers and hundreds of birds and monkeys and small things. Cubs lion and tiger and bear cubs are in special demand by wealthy families. They are reared and petted like kittens, but in the end they outgrow their playfulness and the families who bought them from us are only too willing to pay us to come and take them away when they attain any sort of growth. We have received many orders for hippopotami, but the beasts are hard to capture and ninety-nine times out of a hundred they do not live through the voyage. In fact, menageries throughout the country coun-try have to depend of late years upon the progeny of the hippopotami in Central Park, New York, for specimens. "Like all animal dealers, we maintain expert animal catchers in all parts of the world, and it is these men who fill the ships which arrive here. The Hagenbecks have two collecting stations, one in Calcutta and the other in Aden, Arabia. From this point the animal catchersrgo forth and spend months in the wilds, returning tt the stations with their catch. We ourselves send catchers direct from this country at present we have men in South America, on the hot sands of Africa, in the Himalayas, and elsewhere, filling our orders. One of them was recently In Arabia on a camel hunt, two are now in the Ean indies trapping tigers, and so they are spread about in places where wild beasts abide. "Sometimes we receive an order for a large, number of elephants. We telegraph this order , to; our catchers in the elephant country, who, after organizing the natives into a hunting band, proceed pro-ceed to collect the desired number. A huge in-closuve in-closuve is built in one of the main elephant paths, and at night when the big animals come to feed they are driven into the inclosure or kjddah by means of fires and shouts and the firing of guns.j Beaters cn tame elephants then ride into the in- ' closure and rope the beasts, and in a short ime they become accustomed to being led about. Elephants Ele-phants are naturally mild, and were this not the case they never could be captured, becausesifjf their great, hulking strength. y" "The natives also captured elephants in pits, a barbarously cruel method in which more than 50 per cent, are killed by the fall. The animal catchers take tigers and lions in pits also. They dig a hole, cover it with matting and place on this matting a dead goat. At night the lion or tiger steals from his lair, sees the goat and springs upon it. The matting, of course, gives way and down into the pit goes the roaring beast. Then the catchers run up and throw nets into the pit and the struggling animal soon becomes hopelessly entangled. en-tangled. Nooses are '.hen lowered into the pit and the beast is dragged out to the cage. Six out of every ten are killed in this process. Leopards and jaguars and the smaller animals are caneht In |