The Billboard 1924-03-22: Vol 36 Iss 12 (1924-03-22)

OA r77 pie. MARCH 22, 1924 . lion, the tiger, the rhinoceros, the hippomus, and, chief of all, of practically all the ropoidal apes. For it is in this latter division nimaldom that the circus menagerie has done reatest work of all. For it has been a cheap tment, \hen the scientist goes out to investigate the rm ilities of human and ape relationship he ( it with a rifle. He goes into the jungle, «les his animal there for awhile and then when he tires of that puts a bullet thru the beast, dissects the carcass, brings home the body and the skin and stuffs it and calls it a day. His results are told upon the printed page in ponderous, technical language that only other scientists ean understand, to be agreed or disagreed with accord.ng to the standing of the investigator. The New York Museum of Natural History is in exam@le of this—and in its way it is a wonderful thing, achieving a great pyrpose. Yet I do not believe that the New York Museum of Natural History has accomplished one-tenth as mu h for the “man in the street” as has the circus menagerie! Outrageous? Perhaps so. How on earth can a collection of lions and tigers and performing elephants and such be compared to the vast outof material in the New York Museum? True, it is, that the latter is the epitome of scientific research. True, also, that were one to study those exhibjts the results would be entirely different. But the average human being doesn’t vant to study. He wants his information without working for it. Ask the average man the difference between a Prerodactyl and a Stegosaurus and he'll think you're talking about some new kind of disease. Try to interest him in the piece of skull which represents years of labor on the part of hardworking scientists in their attempts to trace the family connections of the Neanderthal Man and he'll spend most of his time wondering what the weath ia) Ss The Billboard investment alone for the number of performance days which are granted to the circus, it costs nearly $2,000 a day to lug that menagerie around the country. That is the amount the original outlay would earn if it were invested in the ordinary channels of business. Nor does that include the cost of trainers, of food, of assistants, cagemen, dens, horses for transportation, railroad equipment and repairs and steam haulage. Soa menagerie really isn’t such a cheap adjunct, is it? Nor is that all. there was a wonderful ape in England. He had heard that it was a real gorilla—but didn’t believe it. He wenf to England and to the home of the man and woman who had reared the beast to health from a disease-ridden little thing which had been landed in London from a tramp steamer. It was a real gorilla, the first one that ever had thrived in captivity. John Ringling wanted that animal! for his circus. It meant that the people of the United States would be given an opportunity to study something which ne-ther the combined efforts of scientists nor the hunting parties of the animal companies of all the world had been able to give. He didn’t need the gorilla. The menagerie was full as it was. But there was the urge of the true circus man—to bring forth the thing which had not been seen before, to present something new. It meant a gamble of thousands of dollars. He took the chance. The check read for $30,000. John Daniel, the gorilla, N FEW years ago John Ringling learned that THE OLD-TIME HANKER By D. H. TALMADGE When spring sunshine starts the blood again to coursing thru the >» were able to dissect a gorilla brain and carry on their studies thru an actual autopsy upon a specimen of an animal group which has been almost as mysterious as the fabled Dodo. The same thing was true with a giant animal called Casey, which Was imported several years ago from Cape Lopez, Africa, by way of Australia, by a man named Fox. The animal was a mystery and it still is a mystery. It looked like a chimpanzee, yet had characteristics and size which marked it as different from any other chimpanzee that ever had come to this country. It also had gorilla characteristics, yet it was not a gorilla. It died on an operating table in Tampa, Fla., of acute appendicitis, and foilowing its death an autopsy was performed showing surprising indications. For one thing the speech centers of the brain displayed remarkable development, giving the hint that had the animal lived there might have come the time when it would have been able to speak with the articulation of a low order of humanity. Other developments showed a close relationship to the human brain—at least a tendency in that direction. Had the circus which exhibited it known all that beforehand it might have advertised ‘'t as the missing link. But the circus didn’t, which was perhaps just as well. ‘However, one thing remains—Casey was a mys‘ery, and tc the circus world belongs the credit of bringing into general knowledge an animal which hinted, at least, of a strange race of ground apes which may yet be discovered in Africa, showing a development different from that of the chimpanzee and of the gorilla, yet combining both, and aiding the scientists in their researches into T4ih54 THbE Hrd the beginn: .gs of man. That bs Casey was unidentified may best ‘as be judged from a _ conversation which I had recently with Dr. Hornaday, curator of the New York Zoological Gardens, and who said: Tbs 4ibs ib: 0 veins, ‘“ ers going to be tomorrow. But And a fellow sort of limbers up, forgetful of his pains; : Casey has always intrigued put a living chimpanzee before And the dust is on the highway and the grass smell ’'s in the air, : me. He was a mystery. I am that man and tell him there is a slight basis for the belief that there is a straight relationship bethis animal and the human family and he'll spend the rest of the afternoon making comparisons ind thinking it over. Such is the human mind. The fault doesn't lie with the Museum of Natural History| It lies with the status of the mind of today which demands its information in sugar-coated pellets. The Roosevelt Group of African elephants in the Museum, for instance, is one of the most wonderful examples of taxidermy extant. It tells a great story of elephant family life in the jungle; it was collected by experts, designed out of close scrutiny and study and it is correct. But it is 3 DEAD. When the average person 3 tween lesires to study elephants he wants to do it while feeding ‘em peanuts. That's where the circus comes in, thru its ability to give to the people a chance to study animals at close range, to learn about them thru association and become infrested simply thru the fact that their relation» to human beings has been made the basis it interest, That is why animals are exhibited, because the rewvlizes in perfectly canny fashion that it i‘ing reason for its existence other than the ‘one of furnishing amusement. Nor is it, as NY persons believe, because it “gives the cireus ething more to show without much additional " Menagerie animals are just about the most tly exhibits on record. er instance, the next time the Ringling Brothfrs and Parnum & Bailey Circus comes to town ll find In its menagerie a total of forty-four hants A number of them are babies, purlat an average price of about $2,500 amiece en all costs are considered. Half of them are ‘ill crown, worth from $5 000 to $10,000 apiece rding to their performing ability. Lump ‘hom all at an average of $4000 apiece and you © an investment of $186.000 in elephants, to nothing of the food they eat. and elephants the champion hav burners of all animals. That's one item. The four giraffes are another, din case you should desire to purchase a first‘loss giraffe for a playmate some day just write out a cheek. for $15,000 and then trust to good fortune to get you the animal. Giraffes are Searce, So are hippopotam! and rhinoceri and Sreat anes, to say nothing of pythons and junglebred Ugers and Hons and leopards and other ani‘als of their kind, Figuring the interest on the And -the old-time hanker Comes the old-time hanker in the heart to drift ‘most anywhere. "Most anywhere where wagon wheels are grinding in the street, : tion. And the night wind carries greetings from patient horses’ And the elephants are shuffiing to the cars down on the way, Where the engine bells are ringing the passing of the day. Used to be "twas rosy morning that a fellow cared about, With the cook tent “funnel” smoking and the big top rolling out; Mighty sweet the morning dew smell, powerful strong the lure of day, Yet somehow the years have driven all the morning yearn away. ’Tis the torches’ smoky flaring, and the canvas coming down, And the big cats’ mournful whining, and the dark and peaceful town; And the squeal of block and tackle, and the rumbling of the train, That get an answer quickest from an old-time fellow's brain. Loaded up and going onward, out into the starlit night, Don't know where, but calmly certain that it's going to be all right; For the dust is on the highway and the grass smell 's in the air, ‘s in the heart to drift ‘most anywhere. was brought to the United States—and lived less than a month! Such are the risks taken by the circus man to keep his menagerie up to the plane which he desires. This is not the only instance. Expeditions have been fostered, men sent away from the United States for months, even years, at a time to gain some special animal. Perhaps the expedition is a success More often it is a failure, But the crowds which throng thru the marquee into the menagerie see nothing but the gilded cages and the picket line of elephants, givine but little thought to the effort and expense behind it all. Which worries the circus man not at all. But in doing that a number of other things are accomplished. In the first place the rural population is thereby given its knowledge of t.atural history. The farmer's boy, and the boy of the city not large enough to support a zoo, gets his first sight of the lion, the tiger, the elephant and giraffe and hippopotamus in a circus menagerie. With that there comes the inevitable human attribute to make comparisons—and following that study comes easier. It’s much more pleasant to read in the newsvaver about someone you know than it is to read about someone wholly abstract. The same is true of animals. Afier a person has seen the tigers in a circus he wants to know more of them. That's when the books come in. was due to the importation of John Daniel by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Balley that the anthropologists of New York N«™ iS science neglected by the circus. It feet; : But just what kind? frank to say that I could not put: my finger on his exact classificaOf course he was an ape. That is the question.” Some day another Casey may come to America. And another following that. Circus men will bring them when they come and the investigations which follow may cause many a surprising re sult. 5a ND, by the way, the next time you go to the circus just try ' an experiment and see how much more real amusement and % interest you get out of looking at ' the animals. Try a new viewpoint. Just remember that we are all animals—we all belong to the 5 same kingdom. With that in mind, experiment with the idea of looking at those animals not as just so many mere brutes, but as merely a different branch of the animal kingdom to which you belong. Look upon them as foreigners, as visitors to ycur land from a different shore, strange but willing to learn, and with far greater perceptive powers perhaps than we have. As I have mentioned before, the human race is egotistical. It likes to believe that it knows everything. But a close study of animals will reveal that perhaps they can teach us things and that, in their way, they may have every bit as much sense as we have. A dog, you know, can understand his master’s slightest whim and mood. But few indeed are the masters who can understand their dogs! The same is true of all animals. They are foreigners, members. of another race transplanted to a human country. where they must learn the customs, adopt the conventionalities and accept the conditions. They are no different from the ignorant persons who land by droves at Ellis Island except that they have a different mode of living. They have their codes of morals, their different natures, their rules of existence. their penalties for infractions against the laws of nature. even their svstems of government, which, after all. are but different from ours only in the lack of complexities If you don't believe it, stand for a while in front of the monFy cage. Within you'll see at first only a collection of simians apparently bent upon nothing more than food and grotesqueries. fut continue to watch. most of those monkeys are subservient to @& (Continued on page 18) Soon you'll notice that Sn Reipai NiRI eE nny se al il a nn