TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 69 



tematic gift toward the cost of living more gratefully and thank- 

 fully received. In addition to the direct beneficiaries, the staff 

 officers of the Park are profoundly grateful, first because of the 

 relief to the families of the men, and also because it saved the 

 morale of the force from a crushing blow. 



There are reasons for the hope that for the future the city 

 will grant to our men an increase similar to that bestowed upon 

 the fortunate 18,448 last December. 



A BUILDING FOR THE HEADS AND HORNS. 



The filling of all the rooms in the upper story of the Ad- 

 ministration Building, the stairway and the lower halls with 

 the heads and horns of the National Collection sharply accentu- 

 ated the need for a building in which to house the Collection and 

 make it accessible to the public. The Collection now contains 850 

 specimens, many of them of high value, and it is virtually a duty 

 of the Society toward the public to render it accessible to the 

 public. 



On this compelling ground, the City was asked to provide a 

 building ; but for subway reasons, the City felt financially unable, 

 at present, to provide the funds. 



At this juncture the Society recalled to mind the fact that 

 in 1899 the Society expended about $250,000 in erecting and pre- 

 senting to the City the Reptile House, the Aquatic Bird House 

 and twenty other installations for mammals and birds. It being 

 perfectly evident that as many as ten years might elapse ere the 

 City would feel financially able to erect the building, it was de- 

 cided to make an efl'ort to raise a building fund by subscription. 



With rare and admirable generosity, ten persons to whom 

 the need very forcibly appealed, subscribed $10,000 each to form 

 a building fund. In this effort, Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson, 

 for many years one of the staunchest friends of the Society, took 

 a leading part; and her own subscription and two others secured 

 by her were the decisive factors in the undertaking. 



In view of the many humanitarian causes then being urged 

 upon the attention of all philanthropic men and women, the urg- 

 ency of our cause, as a measure of public benefit, was well attest- 

 ed by the subscriptions that were made. The donors of the build- 

 ing for the National Collection of Heads and Horns are as fol- 



