24 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



At Donald Burns's place I talked my venture 

 over with many showmen. They were all inter- 

 ested and wished to encourage me, but they were 

 frankly doubtful of my success because they knew 

 of old Mahommed Ariff's monopoly. Burns offered 

 to help me dispose of the animals, but I was not 

 elated at that prospect, for Burns did not attend 

 very strictly to business. It was a well-known story 

 in the circus world that he had neglected the oppor- 

 tunity of handling the first hippopotamus brought 

 to this country. A sea captain had offered to sell 

 it to him for $3,000, but Burns refused to take it 

 he simply wasn't interested. A few days later it 

 was sold to Barnum for $10,000. 



Strangely enough, it was Burns's easygoing way 

 of managing his affairs that gave me my opportun- 

 ity of going to Singapore. I had been in New York, 

 making my plans and saving my money, but I didn't 

 feel that I had enough to start out on the venture. 

 One day I was in Burns's store when he was away, 

 and a sailor came in, hiding two monkeys under 

 his coat. He had smuggled them into the country 

 and wanted to sell them. The monkeys were black 

 with coal-dust, but one of them, I noticed, had pink 

 eyes. That fact interested me and I bargained for 

 them, buying the pair for fifteen dollars. When 

 the sailor left, I found a cake of soap and gave them 

 a bath. The monkey with the pink eyes turned out 

 to be pure white. Those were the days when Jim 

 Corbett was a great favorite, and he had recently 



