34 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



its hordes, to whom even a five-cent fare is a 

 deterrent. Were it a couple of miles farther " down 

 town," not even its vast spaces would save the animals 

 from the risk of suffocation by the crowd of their 

 admirers. The Aquarium, which lies within a 

 short stroll of New York's most populous quarter, 

 and admits the public free of charge save on 

 Monday morning, draws its average of four or five 

 thousand visitors daily, and during the first eight 

 years of its existence no fewer than thirteen and a 

 quarter millions passed the gates. It says a good 

 deal for the behaviour of the New York crowd that 

 never, since its opening, has there been a single 

 cause for serious complaint. We read in the 

 papers of hooliganism in that city, but it is to be 

 hoped that equally satisfactory results would 

 attend the same policy in England, where we 

 have no free show of living animals, the furthest 

 step in that direction being the recent not 

 wholly successful experiment of the Zoological 

 Society instituting sixpenny Saturdays during the 

 summer. 



No useful purpose can be served by comparing 

 the menageries of London and New York to the 

 advantage or detriment of either. Conditions, easy 

 in the American city, would be impossible in the 

 English. Neither the Treasury nor the London 

 County Council have offered the support guaranteed 

 to Bronx by New York, nor, in all human probability, 

 would the Zoological Society see its way to accept 

 such a subsidy on the conditions that would be 

 stipulated. If the British nation should desire to 

 endow a menagerie, it is free to do so, but one that 

 is owned by a private Society is also free to charge 



