MRS. PARTINGTON AT THE PLAY. 311 if the Post's account can be relied on. "It was our fortune," says the editor, "to sit behind Mrs. Partington during the entire performance, and we were much interested at the effect of the play upon her unsophisticated mind. It was to her an all-absorbing reality. The characters were real characters, and Mercutio and Tybalt were as sensibly killed as though she had felt for their pulse and found it not. She criticised Juliet's haste to get married, and said they didn't do so when she was young, and didn't believe so beautiful a young lady would have gone unmarried, if Romeo wouldn't have had her, and gracious knows he seemed to love her terribly, though hot love she knew was soon cold. But it was at the scene where Romeo bought the 'pizen' that she became most excited. 'It's agin the law to sell it to him,' said she, half aloud, and turned to see if Patterson was anywhere within hailing distance. But even that functionary looked calmly on, nor raised a finger to stay the fatal draught. She saw through the whole plot, and knew that Juliet had taken nothing but a sleeping potion, and wasn't dead. 'Won't somebody go down and tell the poor young man she isn't dead?' said she, wringing her hands, and dropping a tear on the bill in her lap- the dear young man will do something harmonious to himself if somebody doesn't stop him.' The scene shifted, and the tomb of all the Capulets was revealed, with the grief of the noble Count Paris and the violence of Romeo in killing him, and when the latter drank the poison she uttered the faint ejaculation, 'I told you so,' and bowed her head forward to shut out. the scene which she knew must follow, by so doing chafing the neck of a young man in the front seat with her bonnet, while Ike sat wondering what they did with all the dead folks that they killed at the theatres. When Mrs. Partington raised her eyes the green curtain was down, and the bodies of Romeo and Juliet were bowing their thanks to the audience for a complimentary call." 312 DEALERS IN WILD BEASTS. CHAPTER XXV. --- About Menageries and their Tenants.-How the Animals are Obtained.— Dealers in Wild Beasts. Prices of Hippopotami, Leopards, Tigers, Hyenas, etc.-Curious Freaks of Caged Animals.-The Trade in Snakes.-Cost of Boa Constrictors and Rattlesnakes.-The Trade in Rare Birds. - Pheasants, Parrots and Cockatoos for Sale. - How Monkeys are Caught.-Fright at a Wild Beast Show.-"The Animals are Loose!"-Fire breaks out in the Winter Quarters of a Menagerie.— Terror of the Animals.-They escape into the Streets.-How they Behaved.-Wild Beasts Frightened by a Storm.-Chloroforming a Tiger-Elephant Stories.-Cracking a Cocoa Nut. - Protecting a Friend.-Afraid to Cross a Bridge.-Debarking an Elephant at the New York Wharf.-A Leopard attacks an Elephant and gets the worst of it.-An Elephant Attacks a Locomotive and gets the worst of it.-A Lion Loose in a Village in Mississippi.-He Eats a Horse and Escapes into the Open Country.-His Ultimate Fate. For menageries I have great respect, as a rule. As an interesting and instructive branch of the "show business,” free from objectionable features, these exhibitions of the animal kingdom are worthy of support. It is true, the animals are not usually, in their cages, very ferociously wild; but they serve to show the children-who are always the most delighted visitors to the menagerie-how wonderful are the creatures of other lands, even in the subdued condition of captives. Animals are obtained for menageries through a few regular dealers in wild beasts. These dealers are generally Germans-both in this country and in Europe. Two brothers of this nationality, whose place of business is in Chatham street, New York, are the principal American dealers in such interesting goods as lions, tigers, elephants, and the like; though there are numberless small dealers, scattered all over the country, in the large towns, who deal in birds, and various creatures of the smaller sort, which go to make up menageries. THE WILD-BEAST TRADE. 313 A New York paper furnishes the information that "a man, to succeed as a wild-beast dealer, must have a thorough knowledge of natural history (theoretical), and be acquainted with its specimens practically. He must be able to judge at once of the strong points and the weak ones of any beast presented to him; he must be able to tell at once its health and physical condition; he must know what species are most in demand; he must know the proper mode of feeding and of the medical treatment of each animal, with a hundred other matters. He must also have a good deal of personal courage, and a peculiar love for his peculiar profession, together with any amount of patience and perseverance. The wild-beast business fluctuates, just like the dry goods, and has its spring and fall trade. The winter season is comparatively busy, and the summer comparatively dull. The wild-beast traders employ agents in Asia and Africa, and sometimes elsewhere, to hunt up rare and valuable' animals. Thus a New York house has kept a man in Africa for two years seeking for a peculiarly rare and immensely valuable species of hippopotamus; but, as a general rule, the agents of the traders are persons who reside permanently in some wild-beast-frequented portion of this habitable globe, and who are commissioned to buy any valuable specimens they may come across. Having procured their animal, the agents generally depend upon some captain of some vessel whom they know, and who may chance to leave for a European port, to bring it across the sea, the said captain charging the house to which the animal is consigned a heavy tariff for freight, more than twice the amount charged for ordinary material of the same weight and bulk, besides the expenses of the 'keep' of the beast, which latter are large. Having arrived at its destination, a truck adapted for the purpose is sent to convey the beast to its temporary home, where it is re-caged, and fed and cleaned, etc., until it is |