HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
months ago at the Crystal Palace; we chatted of 
old times, of those already gone, of the wonderful 
change taking place in travelling show life, and 
finally of the passing of the Crystal Palace from 
the amusement public for ever. 
JOHN D. HAMLYN. 
The "Star," 10th September, gives the fol- 
lowing : — 
VARIED CAREER OF CRYSTAL PALACE 
EX-MANAGER. 
The death of Mr. G. O. Starr, ex-manager 
of the Crystal Palace, has just been announced. 
Mr. Starr was once the manager of Barnum 
and Bailey's Show. He was the mildest- 
mannered showman that ever ran a circus. 
He never talked of himself, and people who 
were familiar with the genial, quietly-dressed, 
self-effacing man, whose rotund figure every 
visitor to the Palace recognised, rarely knew 
that he had been by turn : — 
A doctor of medicine. 
An officer of the United States Army. 
A popular entertainment provider. 
A journalist. 
A publicity expert. 
A discoverer of freaks. 
The manager of the world's biggest circus. 
It was possible even to know Mr. Starr well and 
never suspect that he Mas an American by birth. 
A MEDICAL MAN. 
But he was born in the State of Connecticut 
G6 years ago, and he lived and practised as a 
doctor there. 
He took up amusement providing by way of 
mental medicine, prescribing a circus perform- 
ance instead of a bottle of medicine, a dose of 
clowning rather than a pill. 
He found this so successful that he ceased 
to dispense his medicine in bottles, but wrapped 
it in the canvas of the circus tent. He filled his 
pharmacy with equestriennes and trapeze per- 
formers, ring masters and clowns, oranges and 
sawdust, naptha lights and garish chariots, and 
before he was thirty, after spending a year or 
two in a New York newspaper office, he became 
Press agent to the Greatest Show on earth. 
FREAK COLLECTOR. 
Nine years later he became European mana- 
ger and freak hunter for the show. He knew 
that to find the dog-faced boys he had to go to 
Odessa or Java or Japan, that the best place to 
pick up midgets was on the bank of the Danube 
river, that the North of China was the likeliest 
place to find giants, that Corea was the most 
fruitful country for physically-connected twins; 
and so on through the whole gamut of the Bar- 
num freaks. 
Chong, one of the giants he discovered, 
provided a real as distinct from a Press agent's 
sensation. He disappeared from his New York 
lodgings, and was never found, alive or dead. 
Mr. Starr always declared that no show was 
complete without its fat woman, and that sen- 
sational acts of the " Dip of Death" kind were 
necessary but undesirable. 
Equestrian acts were pretty but not vital. 
Elephants were perennially in demand, but mon- 
keys were indispensable. 
He was intimately connected also with 
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and introduced 
into it "Zazel," the human cannon ball — a lady 
who became Mrs. Starr. With her he ran for 
a time an opera company. 
MANAGER OF BARNUM AND BAILEY'S. 
In 1906 he succeeded Mr. James A. Bailey 
as manager of Barnum and Bailey's, and a year 
later he settled at Upper Norwood, and became 
manager of the Crystal Palace. 
He was responsible for the development of 
the sports section, which has been so successful 
there, and he introduced the zoological collec- 
tion, which has been a feature in recent years. 
He had taken his circus to entertain most 
of the crowned heads of Europe and several 
Presidents of the United States. "Presidents," 
he once declared, "are very fond of circuses. 
They make very good spectators, and are partial 
to> freaks." 
["Zazel" was introduced to the British Public at 
the Royal Aquarium, Westminster', over 30 
years ago by that celebrated Showman 
Farini, and I remember well the first per- 
formance on a Monday afternoon. — J.D.H.] 
ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
OF IRELAND. 
The Council met on the 4th September, Dr. 
R. R. Leeper, Vice-President, in the chair. Also 
present — Professor Scott, acting Hon. Secretary; 
Dr. MacDowel Cosgrave, Hon. Treasurer; W. E,. 
Peebles, Esq.; Dr. R. F. Scharff, Dr. A. K. Ball, 
Mr. Justice Boyd, James Inglis, Esq.; Professor 
Mettam, Sir F. W. Moore, and H. F. Stephens, 
Esq. 
The acting secretary announced the donation 
of a rabbit from Mr. Leo Ward, a sparrow hawk 
from Miss Baker, and a white rat from Cadet W. 
G. Rochfort Wade. Thanks were voted to the 
donors. 
