68 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



mean, but his special keeper believed that ere he became so 

 dangerous as to require leg-chains, the evidences of it would be 

 apparent. On the contrary, Gunda's attack on Keeper Thuman 

 came like a cyclone bursting from a clear sky, without provoca- 

 tion or the slightest warning. It was thoroughly murderous, 

 and but for the fact that the crash of Gunda's breaking tusk 

 attracted the attention of Keeper Richards as an unusual sound, 

 and brought him rushing to Gunda's cage with a pitchfork, 

 Thuman's injuries might have been even worse than they were. 

 Gunda was driven out of the building by Richards and his 

 pitchfork. Keeper Thuman was badly bruised, and his left thigh 

 was punctured twice by the elephant's tusk. Fortunately, the 

 keeper's injuries were not fatal, and he is now on duty as usual. 

 For the future, Gunda will be kept under control by leg-chains, 

 in order that he may have no further opportunities to attempt 

 wanton murder., 



RUBBISH. 



Our struggle to prevent the throwing of waste paper and 

 other disfiguring rubbish in the Park constitutes the irrepress- 

 ible conflict. Here in New York we have to contend with a form 

 of lawlessness and disorder that in some other American cities 

 is totally absent. The wanton, persistent and thoroughly ma- 

 lignant disfigurement that is the daily curse of the parks of 

 New York is — so far as I have seen and can learn by inquiry — 

 almost unknown in the parks of Boston and Washington. Can 

 it be that we have a percentage of meaner and more lawless 

 people than are found in other cities? 



The entire fault revealed in this disgraceful state of affairs 

 is to be found in the police management of the public. It is 

 within the power of any resolute police commissioner to stop 

 rubbish-throwing in New York parks in one month of real effort 

 in that direction, and that, too, without one cent of additional 

 expense to the City. It can be broken up just as the foul spitting 

 habit was broken up. 



But no. In every New York park, every dirty-habited 

 and lawless man, woman and child feels at liberty to do as he, 

 she or it pleases. So far as I am aware, the strenuous effort 

 against rubbish-throwing that we have been making during the 

 past five years is not duplicated in any other park, at least to 

 the extent of our effort. In this task, the assistance that we 

 receive from the Police force is too small to mention. The dis- 

 gusting liberty that is accorded elsewhere to rubbish-throwers. 



