KEPOKT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



ART AND MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



Art collections. — The words of your first secretary, that the Iiistitutfoii 

 exists for knowledge iu the highest sense, iucltidiug not only science 

 commonly so called, bUt "the ti-iie, the beatltiilllj as Well as the immedi- 

 ately practical," remind us that one of the lines on which the Institiltloil 

 was to develop according to the views of Congress, that of its connec- 

 tion with art, has been allowed almost entirely to lapse. It is now, liow- 

 ever, understood that a very valuable collection of art objects, repre- 

 senting, perhaps, over $1,000,000 in value, has been left to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution ; and it is not an abstract question when we ask 

 what these relations are to be. It seems to me that here again'the fact 

 of the independence of the Smithsonian is of inestimable value in its 

 possible future usefulness. No possessor of a great private gallery like 

 either of the two or three in this country which are rising now to al- 

 most national importance— no possessor of such a gallery, knowing on 

 the one hand What art is and on the other hand what the relatiDus of 

 the (jovernment to art have been in the past, is likely to bequeath it 

 to the nation without some guaranty, not only for its care and mainte- 

 nance, but for its judicious use iu the cause of national art itself. 



the Smitlisoiiiau, the pubiio clamoring for a National " Zoo," and a competent natu- 

 ralist ready and anxious to build it up, what reason is there why the bill should not 

 be passed and work begun at 'once ? If it is neglected much longer some of our 

 gramlcst game species will have become so nearly extinct it will be almost, if not 

 quite, impossible to procure living representatives of them at any price. At the rate 

 mountain goats are now being killed off for their pelts five years hence it will be im- 

 possible to procure a living specimen. A live buffalo is now worth from $500 to 

 $1,000, according tc sex and size, whereas three or four years ago they were worth 

 only one-fifth as much. As an index to public sentiment in regard to the proposed zo- 

 oh)gi3al pjS-k at Washington, we may quote a few editorial exi)ressions from our ex- 

 changes. It IS interesting to note the unanimity of the opinions that come to us iu 

 journals of all kinds and parties, from Boston to San Francisco. The Boston Globe 

 exclaims : " Give us a National Zoo. Senator Beck has introduced a bill of great in- 

 terest to the people of the United States, conoerning which there can be no partisan 

 difference of opinion, and which ought to be passed. This is the only great nation 

 in the world which does not possess such an institution, and it is the one of all others 

 Avhich needs it most. A national museum of living animals would be one of the 

 leading attractions of Washington, and would show the citizen and foreign visitor at 

 a glance the animals of this country as they could never bo seen otherwise. By all 

 means let this country have a National ' Zoo.' Senator Beck's bill ought to pass." 

 The Pittsburgh Dispatch declares that the bill "should meet with the hearty in- 

 dorsement it deserves. That a iiatiou so far in advance in the march of progress as 

 the United States should be entirely without some such institution under Gov- 

 ernment protection seems almost incredible." The New York Forest and Stream 

 asserts that " the importance of preserving living North American mammals can 

 hardly be overestimated. The buffalo is practically extinct, and the range of the 

 elk has become so contracted in the last few years that it is apparent the same 

 fate awaits that noble species. There are others that will survive longer, but the 

 people at large, know nothing, and never can know, about them, unless they sh.ill be 

 brought close to their homes. All these animals should be secured before it is too 

 late." The Chicago Inter-Ocean, iu a lengthy and very earnest editorial on this sub- 



