68 



T H i: 



AQUARIUM 



^ 



The First Exhibition of the Mil- 

 waukee Aquarium Society 



By REV. PAUL ROTH 



When the writer was a boy he secured 

 permission to conduct an "aquarium" 

 in an old bath-tub that had been re- 

 tired from active service. Every form 

 of aquatic Hfe known to the average boy 

 was given a place in it, from frogs and 

 turtles to bullheads and eels. The entire 

 juvenile neighborhood gathered in that 

 bathroom, and there we enjoyed lively 

 times, for "one touch of nature makes 

 the whole world kin." Also there were 

 lively times in the old tub, among the 

 ill-assorted denizens of its vasty depths, 

 until sister pulled the stopper and dealt 

 liberty and death among them with im- 

 partial hand. But the charm had got 

 in its work. Ever since then the life 

 ■that is lived in the watery element has 

 held for me a strange and compelling 

 fascination. When word of the forma- 

 tion of a local society for the study of 



aquatic life was received, I remembered 

 the old tub and the crowds that gathered 

 around it, and joined the new society. 



There wasn't much science about that 

 old bath-tub aquarium but there was a 

 lot of bully good fun. We didn't learn 

 much about hydro-biology, but we did 

 learn something about human nature. 

 It strikes me that the same forces which 

 worked together in those days have been 

 at work again today. I might be mis- 

 read as implying that the members of 

 our society have fitted out and shown 

 off a lot of old "tubs," and so I hasten 

 to say that this was not the case. I 

 understand that a cut is to accompany 

 this article, so that anyone may see 

 that we have got out of the witches' 

 cauldron stage of the game. 



The initial exhibition was arranged in 

 six divisions. First came the Goldfish 

 varieties, displayed so as to make plain 

 the development from the common 

 golden carp up to the finest available 



