4 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
my disadvantages in his presence. Moreover, Pro- 
fessor Ward was always very busy and very brusque 
and was avery fierce man. Not even when a leopard 
sprang on me in Africa have I had a worse moment 
than when this little man snapped out, “What do you 
want?” 
The last vestige of my pride and assurance was 
centred on my business card, and without a word I 
handed him this evidence of my skill and art as a 
taxidermist. The card seemed to justify my belief 
in it, for the great man asked me when I could go to 
work and offered me the munificent sum of $3.50 a 
week. I discovered a boarding house where I could 
get a room and my meals for $4 a week and on this 
basis I began to learn the art of taxidermy and to run 
through my slender resources. 
The art of taxidermy as practised at Ward’s Nat- 
ural Science Establishment in those days was very 
simple. To stuff a deer, for example, we treated the 
skin with salt, alum, and arsenical soap. Then the 
bones were wired and wrapped and put in his legs and 
he was hung, upside down, and the body stuffed 
with straw until it would hold no more If then we 
wished to thin the body at any point, we sewed 
through it with a long needle and drew it in. Now 
to do this, no knowledge of the animal’s anatomy or 
of anything else about it was necessary. There was 
but little attempt to put the animals in natural 
attitudes; no attempt at grouping, and no accessories 
in the shape of trees or other surroundings. The 
profession I had chosen as the most satisfying and 
