REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



ART AND MISCELLANEOUS SUB.IECTS. 



Art collections. — The words of yourlirst secictaiy, that the Iii«titntion 

 t'xists for kuowledge in the highest sense, includin.ii- not only science 

 commonly so called, bnt ''the trne, the beantifnl, as well as the immedi- 

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

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

 tion with art, has been allowed almost entirely to lapse. 1 1 is now, how- 

 ever, understood that a very valuable collection of art objc^cts, repre- 

 sentiug, 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 uow to al- 

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

 the one hand what art is and on the other hand what the relations of 

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

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

 nance, but f«r its judicious use in the cause of national art itself. 



the Smithsonian, the public clamoring for a National " Zoo," and a competent natu- 

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

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

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

 quite, impossible to procure living rei)resentatives of thorn at any price. At the rate 

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

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

 .$1,000, according to sex and size, whereas three or four years ago they wore worth 

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

 ological park at Washington, we may quote a few editorial expressions from our ex- 

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

 journals of all kinds and parties, from Boston to San Fraiu'iscu. The Boston (Jlobe 

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

 terest to the people of the United States, concerning wliicli there can bo no partisan 

 difierence of opinion, aiul which ought to be passed. Tiiis is the only great nation 

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

 which needs it most. A national museum of living animals wonhl be one of the 

 leading attractions of Washington, and would show the citizen and foreign visitorat 

 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 nation so far in advance in the march of progress as 

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

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

 ;isserts that " the importance of preserving living North American mammals can 

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

 elk lias Ijecome so contracted in tlie last few years that its is ajjparent the same 

 fate awaits that noble sjiecies. There ar(^ of hers that will survivt; longer, but the 

 people at hvrge know nothing, an<l never can know, about them, unless they shall be 

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

 late." Tho Chicago Inter-Ocean, in a lengthy and verj' earnest editorial ou this sub- 



