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Show ""Tfie jVjan Who Bn tigs ?En) f 'f ' '"iJ 4 v i;' . . . .;?isft V I r ? a Ik,. , ttj A VSC- p.V?ln With aYoung Gorilla Tran'k Buck Holding aTigerCuN -- V W f 4 1 4 jOfi fc'.X I J f ' 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON -ZL 7A ' - I 7T F, a few years ago, a certain 1 , .,r:v J forming the ceremony of "lay- -Tliyftr )M :! :;: Mi ' A Ing on of hands" a ceremony i' XffiStfr Jik 1 if? i?t-''' J. Si familiar to innumerable moth- l " ! ifi VSs&Sx 3' ers of innumerable active, , t I HM l . venturesome little boys-then 1 1 ? 1 f i thousands of visitors to cer- J'Kifel i i . i ' C lfSA tain zoological parks in vari- L H ST ff'f ft 1 frf1P " ous parts of the United States ' fr'' -,L 1 V J ' 1 f2f would never have had the thrill of looking upon f SslMm I V '1?TJ the only authentic man-eating tiger ever brought fc 3'-ssJ if . "y '.V- vf to tills country, the biggest king cobra ever cap- l Simm ix-MNSlBafWi I , A tured alive, two of the exceedingly rare Indian I ''itHisMost I' ' rhinoceroses and the tiniest baby elephant (just -:hM&ii0i sk i-- CiviLi7.ed two feet and ten inches at the shoulder) ever ' f V" brought across the seas. , , L t '' But lest that statement appear to be too para- ' ; ;Vr "Wf? '':S'f!LHE'V'-. ! "r- J doxlcal let it be explained at once that she was f&tMM f ift TVaiik BuckVlthaBabglapir the mother of Frank II. Iiuclc, who as a colj rj-:-, ''S:-;?;;;!" ; ;!sv:'-:??, lector of live animals, reptiles and birds, is i Tf;rt;4 PWii'iM without a peer in the world today. She had dis- f i , ( Vv" ? - , , . , , f ,,,. . , ' , ., i ti i n s- j! hollow between joints. Ah brought back exact-covered exact-covered her voting son busily engaged in the f ' I 1 : , , , . .. f " , i , . , . , f i R . 1 ? ly what I had sent him for, a piece of bamboo capture of a big, angry, buzzing rattlesnake near ... tiktw JkiW la i ' . ' . ,. it , , ir . m ii . rr, -"S . i K 1 ; about two inches n diameter. I cut off a piece the Buck home on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, ( . i ,! f s 1 . . . , , , . . ,.,.. , . t ,S J 8n . f about nine inches long, leaving the joint to and the "laving on of hands' ceremony was ob- S Si ' : I ' , . .. m, . , . ... . , ... , . . . t. V i X i - iM ( form the bottom. This gave me a device which served forthwith to convince lum that there I j, s , - s , , . , " .. . . T . . , , . , , . , . :; R, i. v ( tf I planned to use as a feeding tube. I sharpened were less dangerous way for a lad of his years i I&SK , 1 ' ., . . . , to earn monev. (He was collecting rattlesnakes llllllil illill 'h" ,lU ll came to a point, and, satis- becnuse an old doctor in Minneapolis, Minn., WmmmmSmK iWmSMmil &ett 1 lh rlght traCk' 1 Proceeded tte0mTr?rtafo"theVTue Sake n" lD SjjjjS " "Beforehis couid be carried out we had to Frank Buck" will tell 'you 'that the ceremony TranX BucK and "Babti Boo " get our elephant (we practically carried her) was performed in a most thoroughgoing fashion. & the shack where we had arranged to spend . :. . , . ... the nitrhr. T instructed All to boil some rice m fnr F, a few years ago, a certain fl , mother down In Texas had fj been more successful in per-fa per-fa forming the ceremony of "lay-3 "lay-3 ing on of hands" a ceremony familiar to innumerable moth-VI moth-VI ers of innumerable active, venturesome little boys then 2 thousands of visitors to cer- , tain zoological parks Ic vari- mie'maammt ous pm-ts of the United States would never have had the thrill of looking upon the only authentic man-eating tiger ever brought to tills country, the biggest king cobra ever captured cap-tured alive, two of the exceedingly rare Indian rhinoceroses and the tiniest baby elephant (just two feet and ten inches at the shoulder) ever brought across the seas. But lest that statement appear to be too paradoxical para-doxical let it be explained at once that she was the mother of Frank II. Buck, who as a colj lector of live animals, reptiles and birds, is without a peer in the world today. She had discovered dis-covered her young son busily engaged in the capture of a big, angry, buzzing rattlesnake near the Buck home on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, and the "laying on of hands" ceremony was ob served forthwith to convince him that there were less dangerous way for a lad of his years to earn money. (He was collecting rattlesnakes because an old doctor in Minneapolis, Minn., who manufactured a "magic snake oil," was in the market for the reptiles). Frank Buck will tell you that the ceremony was performed In a most thoroughgoing fashion. But It failed of its purpose. For from his earliest earli-est childhood wild animals and birds fascinated him and the desire to possess them was his mastering passion. So the mother who tried to shape the destiny of the foremost exponent of the art of "bringing 'em back alive" was due to be foiled from the beginning. When the Buck family moved to Chicago, the boy, no longer able to capture small wild animals ani-mals and birds as he had done on his native soil, haunted the Lincoln Park zoo and the pet stores In the big city, feasting his eyes on Btrange new animals and birds from far-off corners cor-ners of the earth. What money he was able to gave he invested In owning some of these birds paying for one pair, incidentally, a price ten times as great as he himself could charge when years later he became a collector. When he grew older Frank Buck's hobby took him to South America in search of rare birds. This was followed by a second trip to the southern south-ern continent and when he sold his collection of live birds he found the deal so profitable that he resolved to go In for wholesale bird and animal collecting. And that was the beginning of a unique career. Today Frank Buck can go into almost any zoo In the United States or walk through the menagerie tent of any circus and, looking through the bars of the cages, greet the Inhabitant Inhabi-tant thereof as an old friend. For It was he who brought that inhabitant from his native haunts to this place so that the thousands of Americans who have before only heard of the . existence of some strange animal can see the animal in the flesh. Obviously a man with such a record has had more than his share of thrills and narrow escapes es-capes from death. Obviously, too, an account of them could not be told within the space of this article any more than a full account of them could be told In the book "Bring 'Em Back Alive," written by Frank Buck with Edward Anthony and published by Simon and Schuster. But there was space in that book to tell of the time Frank Buck found himself sliding Into a pit with a man-eating tiger which he and his helpers were trying to get out of the pit into a cage; of the time one of his leopards escaped aboard ship and how he went into a cabin where the leopard was at bay and roped him ; and of the time when a king cobra escaped from its cage and cornered him in a hut in his compound at Singapore. Those are only three of the times when Frank Buck stared death straight in the eyes. There were many others. Ferhaps the strangest strang-est of all of them was the time a tapir, ordinarily ordi-narily the meekest of all animals, tried to crush him to death with its six hundred pounds of weight and all but succeeded. Then there was the time when an orang-utan, the giant jungle-man jungle-man of Malaya, was just ready to draw him Into a death embrace with his powerful arms and then tear him to pieces with his teeth. There was just one chance to escape alive and Frank Buck took It. He's not a professional boxer, but when the orang came at him with outspread arms, Buck simply walked in and gave the jungle-man an uppercut on the point of the jaw that was as an effective k. o. as was ver demonstrated in the prize ring. "Yes, I have had more than my share of thrills," Frank Buck will tell you. "But I am frank to say that these close calls do not represent rep-resent a love of looking death in the eye. I am not that kind of adventurer. I take no unnecessary unnec-essary risks. When a man operates on as big a scale as I do he doesn't 'have to look for trouble. No matter how careful one is, something some-thing is bound to go wrong when live animals and reptiles are handled wholesale. It is then that experience counts." And he might add that experience counts In other times than when something goes wrong and an adventurer such as he is looks death in the eye. A big game hunter has to think of saving only one life his own. But a man wl collects wild animals, as Frank Buck does, has to think of saving his own life and the animal's too. For the biggest king cobra, a giant orangutan, orang-utan, an Indian rhinoceros, or a man-eating tiger is utterly valueless to a zoo or a circus If it is dead. Experience counts, too, in keeping the animal alive after it has been captured. It may seem strange to call Frank Buck a dietitian. But that's exactly what he is and he is an expert in matters of diet to the most finicky epicures in the world. He can't guess how to accustom a wild animal to the change from the food which it eats in its wild state over to "civilized fare." He has to know! The capture of some rare wild animal may represent a great outlay of money and time, plus the ever-present element ele-ment of danger to 4he collector. But If, after the beast is captured, its captor doesn't know how to keep it healthy, both physically and mentally, the whole investment of time and money and the potential value of the animal when It is delivered to the zoo or circus may be an entire loss. Typical of some of the dietetic problems which Frank Buck has had to solve was the case of Baby Boo, the two-foot-ten-inch elephant which he brought back on one of his trips. So far as is known there has never been written any book on "The Care and Feeding of Infant Elephants." So when Frank Buck bought one from a party of Batiks in Sumatra and it was delivered to him in a half-starved, weak and wobbling condition there were no precedents for him to go by in determining what to do to keep from having a dead baby elephant on his hands. Here is what happend, as he tells it: , "My problem had just begun. I had to get some food into that elephant's belly and without with-out much loss of time. I sent AH (his native assistant) out to scout around for a milk-goat. He brought one back and hurriedly milked it. I tried to. pour some milk down the stubborn pachyderm's throat but I couldn't get her jaws open. Once or twice I managed to get them partly open but before I could pour the milk down she closed them again. "I considered five or six different plans for feeding that animal, dismissing them as impractical im-practical as fast as they popped into my head. Then I got an idea that I thought was worth trying. The lirst step was to send Ali to a nearby clump to cut me a length of bamboo. As is commonly known, a stick of bamboo is made up of a series of joints, the wood being hollow between joints. Ali brought back exactly exact-ly what I had sent him for, a piece of bamboo about two inches in diameter. I cut off a piece about nine inches long, leaving the joint to form the bottom. This gave me a device which I planned to use as a feeding tube. I sharpened the opening till it came to a point, and, satisfied satis-fied that I was on the right track, I proceeded with the next step. "Before this could be carried out we had to get our elephant (we practically carried her) to the shack where we had arranged to spend the night. I instructed Ali to boil some rice in water. When the rice was cooked, I mixed some goat's milk with it, the result being a thin but nutritious gruel. Then I proceeded to fill my bamboo with this substance.- "This done, Ali got his shoulder right under un-der the elephant's forequarters till she was almost al-most standing on her back legs. Then I forced the point of the bamboo tube between her tightly tight-ly closed jaws, gradually working it in until I could tip it up and dump the contents down her throat. Stubborn to the last, she tried to keep from swallowing, giving in after a few seconds of gurgling. A second tubeful was prepared and the operation was repeated, this time the task proving less difficult. In all, I fed tier three tubes of gruel that session. "An hour later I put the obstinate Uttle girl to bed, covering her up with some old gunny sacks. The following morning there was a definite defi-nite improvement in her condition, some of the wobbliness having disappeared. We gave her her breakfast, repeating the performance with the tube. This time ft was unnecessary to prop her up. "A little later in the morning we put her on a bullock cart and took her back to Domji, from where she was transported, along with my other oth-er specimens to Singapore. We had no trouble feeding her en route, the bamboo feeding tube working perfectly." One other item which a wild animal collector needs to have in his psychological equipment for following his profession is diplomacy. That Frank Buck has that Is shown by the fact that some of his rarest specimens have been obtained ob-tained because of his friendship with oriental potentates and his skill in handling the native peoples of the jungles where he has had to go to find his animals. Among these people Frank Buck is a great "tuan" (chief) and he is that to coolies in the Malay peninsula and to Indian rajahs. If he hadn't been he would never have been permitted to penetrate the forbidden jungles jun-gles of Nepal, which is closed to white men, and bring back with him those two Indian rhinos which now have their homes in the New York and Philadelphia zoos. If he hadn't been, it is doubtful if he would have been able to make the remarkable moving pictures which resulted from his last trip to the Orient. For it was a faithful coolie who came speeding to tell his "tuan" that a python was lying near a trail used by a tiger and that resulted in an epochal film record of a python-tiger python-tiger fight, the like of which few white men have ever seen and none has ever before photographed. photo-graphed. For to cap his career of "bringing 'em back-alive" back-alive" Frank Buck has lately brought back a movie record of life in the jungle, which ts as unique as the record of his career as a collector col-lector of wild animals, ne also has brought back the memory of one of his narrowest escapes es-capes from death the memory of being stalked by a tiger, of tripping and falling backward when the big cat hurled itself at him and of looking up and seeing the striped belly of the animal passing over him. "Yes, it was a rather close call," said Frank Buck in telling 'me of this incident. "But well, you see me here, don't you?" ( by "Western Newspaper Union.) |
