700 THE NATIONAL ZOO AT WASHINGTON. 



love of slaughter, not the need for their skin, flesh, or range, was the 

 incentive; and the public, though not yet able to look on these animals 

 as the student does, nevertheless realized that it was about to be robbed 

 of something valuable by a few mean-spirited and selfish hunters. 



Additional point was given to the obvious moral by the circumstance 

 that, through its far-reaching system of correspondence, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution was continually receiving gifts of living animals, 

 which, for lack of space to keep them, had either to be turned into 

 dead specimens or given away to outside zoos, or else returned to their 

 donors. 



This was the state of affairs in 1887, when the newly appointed Sec- 

 retary of the Institution, Mr. S. P. Langley, who, though an astrono- 

 mer and a physicist, had been very strongly impressed by the fact 

 that all our largest and most interesting native animals were rapidly 

 approaching extinction, conceived the idea of securing a tract of coun- 

 try, as primitive as possible, that might be made a lasting city of 

 refuge for the vanishing races. This was the main idea, when first 

 Mr. Langley went before Congress to urge the establishment of a 

 national zoological park. 



In all ages it has been the custom of potentates to keep a collection 

 of wild animals for their amusement, and the American people, being 

 their own ruler, had numberless precedents before them when urged 

 to make this much-needed collection of animals. 



In such a case the advantage of a monarchy is that only one man 

 must be convinced, whereas in the republic the consent of a majority 

 of seventy millions had to be obtained. 



This took time. Fierce battles had to he fought with ignorant and 

 captious politicians. One objected that he did not see why the people 

 should pay ""to have the Nebraska elk and Florida alligators cooped 

 up." If they had to spend money for it they would want things they 

 could not see at home — dog-faced baboons, kangaroos, man-eating 

 tigers, etc. Another, a fervent patriot, objected to any money being 

 spent on exotic species, as it was contrary to the spirit of the 1 Consti- 

 tution to encourage or import foreigners! 



Altogether the Secretary of the Smithsonian found it no easy bill to 

 carry, though it was indorsed by nearly every scientist and educator 

 in the country. 



After three years of persistent effort, involving vastly more worry 

 than the management of the whole Smithsonian Institution for three 

 times that period, Mr. Langley succeeded in carrying both Houses of 

 Congress over the successive stages of ridicule, toleration, and favor- 

 able consideration, to the point of accepting and providing for the 

 scheme. 



An appropriation was made for a national zoological park to be 

 established in the District of Columbia for the "advancement of 



