REPORT OF THE 

 DIRECTOR OF THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 



NOTWITHSTANDING a record breaking attendance of 

 2,035,859, the Director sincerely hopes that he never will 

 have to pass through another year such as 1919. The grinding 

 poverty of our working people was accentuated by a scale fai 

 lower than the pay given elsewhere in city institutions foi 

 similar services. This affected every one on the force, from 

 the lowest to the highest. The losses of valuable long-service 

 men, and the difhculty of securing new ones "just as good" at 

 our starvation rates of pay, precipitated a continuous struggle 

 to keep our force fairly intact, and keep the Park up to the 

 mark. 



Next came the loss by death of four long-time friends : Mr. 

 Carnegie, Mrs. Sage, Mr. Clark and Mr. Bourne. 



To those calamities we have to add the loss of some im- 

 portant large hoofed animals, the present impossibility of re- 

 placing any of them, and the total loss of a collection of South 

 American animals of great variety that had been specially 

 gathered for us, — lost because of no shipping facilities from 

 the only port available. 



Finally, the cut in our appropriation of $32,000 and its 

 baneful results, followed us through the year like a nightmare. 



The bright spots on the year's record were the record 

 throngs of appreciative visitors, the return of Major Dr. Blair 

 from overseas, the visits of the King and Queen of Belgium, 

 the giving of a large lot of living specimens to the Zoological 

 Garden most in need of them, and the saving (by Keeper D'Osta) 

 of the big chimpanzee Fanny when she was just the same as 

 dead of pneumonia. 



