To an 



Sentenced 

 t Has Zoo at Home 



The floating church which navigates the canals in the 

 Argentine delta country between the Parana and Uruaguay 

 Rivers. This picture was made by Correspondent Shippen as he 

 passed in a government launch. 



By W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr., 

 Star Staff Correspondent. 



NEAR SAN FERNANDO, Province 

 Of Buenos Aires.— "Porroto" (Beans 

 in English) doesn't want to work 

 every day in an office. He wants to 

 be a naturalist, a humanitarian, but 

 his padre thinks otherwise. At this 

 writing Porroto was showing up 

 pretty regularly for toil. 



He can't overdo things at the office, 

 however, until the last finger that 

 Pepita broke regains its strength. 

 Pepita — Beans calls her Pepy for 

 short—is a giant condor, with talons 

 of steel built for freighting off a 



"But Pepy is the lady, no?" cried 

 Beans, scrambling into the "lady's" 

 cage to help her climb his arm. "She 

 don' mean evil when she break my 

 fingers by mistake . . . all is forgive, 

 eh, Pepy?" Pepy squawked and 

 swung her beak down toward the 

 ear of Beans. We were afraid she 

 might have her master's ear in more 

 ways than one, but not Beans. 



Beans then took up to the puma's 

 cage. The old friends put on a 

 Clyde Beatty act. The puma was a 

 big one and purred like 40 tomcats. 

 It seemed a bit ominous to me, espe- 

 cially when the cat bared fangs and 

 claws. Beans emerged whole, how- 

 ever. 



A Young Zoo. 



The next spot was Beans' private 

 bear den. Two rather large brown 

 beasts answered his call and licked 

 his fingers through the bars. "Ah, 

 the poor little prisoners ! " said Beans. 

 "They have lost their freedom be- 

 cause of the sweet tooth. Those bear 

 adore sugar. In the dining room 

 they break the cabinet with their 

 little paws. They eat all the sugar. 

 Now they are in jail. It is the order 

 of my father!" 



As we strolled over the lawn and 

 through the informal gardens of the 

 vast estate of Beans' father, Pata- 

 gonian cavies scampered away, and 

 oven birds set up a great clamor 

 from cedars and eucalyptus trees. 

 The cavies responded to the call of 

 Beans and wild birds seemed un- 

 afraid in his presence. 



"I wish I could show you my fa- 

 vorite," Beans said, "but he is gone. 

 He was the little wild "pato." What 

 do you say in English for pato? 

 What do you say for the bird who 

 is the cousin of Mickey Mouse? 

 Dunold? Dunold Dok?" 



"Donald Duck." 



"Ah, yes, yes, yes! Donald Duck! 

 My Donald is gone." 



"What happened to him?" 



"One day, in the spring, his frens 

 pass over going to Patagonia. Don- 

 ald fly away with his love!" 

 An Admirer of W. H. Hudson. 



Beans, although young, and small 

 of stature, was a pretty sturdy citi- 

 zen, sun -burned, clean-cut and mus- 

 cular — a horseman and a natural- 

 ist, who had ridden the wilds of 

 Chaco to the north, and Patagonia 

 to the south. 



A student of natural history, 

 Beans also is a collector of first 

 editions. The works of W. H. Hud- 

 son are some of his favorites, "A 

 Naturalist on the Amazon," "Pur- 

 ple Lands," (Hudson's story, written 

 in maturity, of his memories as a 

 youth on the Pampas) , "Green 

 Mansions," etc. Beans prefers to 

 read these works in Spanish, and 

 has them translated for his library. 



Beans' wife, a petite blond, might 

 have stepped out of the pages of a 



fashion journal. When she joined 

 us she was leading their young son, 

 a fat, sun-burned infant whose 

 doting grandfather had built him a 

 private swimming pool in the patio, 

 no bigger than a bath tub. Beans' 

 wife asked her husband (in a quick 

 aside) if the guests spoke English 

 or French. The English which she 

 took up was better than mine. 



I, speaking only English, couldn't 

 help but wonder how a child of her 

 age could converse in three langu- 

 ages. 



She told us that her son, aged 2, 

 already was picking up a bit of Eng- 

 lish and French under the tutelage 

 of his governess, although he howled 

 —like a big Gaucho— when she threw 

 too much English at him. He likes 

 Spanish best. 



Wanted: Mr. West. 



'You are from North America?" 

 asked the young mother. "Then 

 perhaps you know a Mr. West? He 

 if of New York. Are not most North 

 Americans of New York?" 

 "Several million anyhow." 

 "Ah, then perhaps you know him. 

 Mr. West was of New York. He was 

 a photographer, I believe. My hus- 

 band and I met him in Chile. We 

 were on our honeymoon. 



"The photographer took many pic- 

 tures of the mountain scenery. He 

 had great appreciation of beauty. 

 My husband and I bought a pancho 

 we admired so much. Mr. West 

 admired it even more, so my hus- 

 band said, Tt is yours, Senor.' 



"Mr. West promised to send us 

 pictures from the States. Perhaps 

 he has lost our address. Possibly 

 he forgot us. He was such a busy 

 man, and we were so young . . 

 not very important. 



"If you see Mr. West, will you tell 

 htm where we live, please ... we 

 would so much like to have the 

 photographs of Chile as it looked 

 on our honeymoon." 



We assured her that if we en- 

 countered Mr. West we would tell 

 him. 



Tomorrow: Lunching on Pheasant. 



Father of 'Quints' 



Mother and Babies, 

 At Buenos Aires Zoo, 

 Are Doing Nicely 



By W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr., 

 Star Staff Correspondent. 

 BUENOS AIRES. — We know now 

 what made the Texas red wolf so 

 restless that morning at sea when 

 we found him pacing the deck of 

 the Uruguay. He 

 was about to be- 

 come the father 

 of quintuplets! 



The cubs ar- 

 rived this morn- 

 ing at the local 

 Zoo, and moth- 

 er and babies 

 are doing nicely, 

 thank you! Di- 

 rector William 

 • M. Mann of the 

 Washington, D. 

 C, Zoo, was de- 

 lighted, as he 

 had hoped to 

 bring along a w h. shippen, jr. 

 prolific pair whose descendants 

 would stock the Zoos of South 

 America. 



The father wolf, about the size of 

 a police dog, with longer teeth and 

 stronger jaws, chewed and wrenched 

 a wooden bar off his crate to escape 

 on the freight deck. Dr. Mann was 

 called out in the dawn to capture 

 the fugitive. The wolf must have 

 had a lot on his mind, however, 

 for he showed no fight. Dr. Mann 

 was able to drive and spank him 

 back into an empty crate without 

 | so much as a toothmark to show 

 for it. 



Shows Consideration. 

 The father, it seemed to me, wasn't 

 very considerate of the mother dur- 

 ing her trying period. He chewed 

 through a wire partition which 

 separated them and bolted most of 

 1 her food. 



"He was seeing to it that mamma 

 Stuck to her diet!" Dr. Mann said. 



The gift animals are welcome ad- 

 ditions to the big Zoo here. The 

 buffalo pair is doing fine and the 

 huge, bald eagles make quite a 

 show. 



Some of the smaller things were I 

 sent to La Plata. The Zoo director i 

 there, Dr. Carlos Marelli, is an old 

 friend of Dr. Mann's. Both Zoos, 

 J I understand, are assembling a few 

 surprises as gifts for the Washing- 

 ton Zoo. 



The park in La Plata is a botanic 

 as well as a zoological show. There 

 are palms and pines from all over 

 the world, flowering shrubs, plants 

 and vines, and an especially fine col- 

 lection of cactus. The cactus types 

 include one which made the orig- 

 inal "barbed wire" defenses for an 

 army at war. 



Raiders Incapacitated. 



The cactus grows in tortuous, 

 twisting lengths covered with inch- 

 long spines which are barbed and 

 detach themselves on touch. The 

 Uruguayans spread this devil's own 

 invention one night against an ex- 

 pected raid from the Paraguayans. 

 The cactus made human pin cush- 

 ions of the raiders, who were too 

 busy for days to waste time on mili- 

 tary activities. 



There was a twinkle in the eye of 

 Dr. Marelli as he related the inci- 

 dent. 



"Soldiers have no time to shoot 

 people," he said, "after sitting on 

 that cactus, no?" 



The spines, like porcupine quills, 

 are barbed to work into the flesh 

 of the unfortunates who encounter 

 them. They go on working long 

 after barbed wire has quit. 



Parade in Search 

 Of Husbands 



Tradition in Old Spain, 

 Passeo Is Observed 

 With Strict Decorum 



By W. tt. SHIPPEN, Jr., 



Star Staff Correspondent. 



LA PLATA— The senoritas strolled 

 in circles while they turned their 

 eyes in even more directions— look- 

 ing for a husband ! 



Dusk had settled over the wide 

 plaza of this provincial capital and 

 the lights of the city fell upon an 

 animated scene which had a subtle 

 undercurrent of excitement. 



There was a tang of fall in the 

 air. Palm fronds rattled softly 

 above wide^. 

 promenades! 

 filled with the | 

 youth and beau- § 

 ty of La Plata. I 

 The "Colonel's | 

 Lady and Judy 

 O'Grady" were 

 out tonight, for 

 it was a religious 

 holiday and the 

 occasion of an- 

 other "passeo" — 

 that vanishing 

 tradition of Old 

 Spain. 



Young girls 

 walked and w. h. shippen, jr. 

 skipped arm in arm, dressed in their 

 finest, their hair elaborately done 

 in the latest coiffures. 



The wealthiest wore their jewels, 

 and little shop girls sparkled with 

 scarcely less animation in their imi- 

 tations — ear pendants, rings, brace- 

 lets and pins. 



Many Wear Blossoms. 



Many girls wore blossoms in their 

 hair. There were a surprising num- 

 ber of blonds for a aLtin city. The 

 parade of feminine charm passed 

 along tiled sidewalks between a dou- 

 ble line of Argentine swains — young 

 cynics who fingered their mustaches 

 while they stared boldly at every 

 pretty face. 



Their polished black hair gleamed 

 in the lights, their suits were im- 

 macula tely pressed (for some rea- 

 son, it costs a handful of pesos to 

 get a suit cleaned here) and their 

 bright ties carefully set in white 

 collars. 



The girls seemed blissfully un- 

 aware of the primary function of the 

 passeo — matrimony. They strove 

 for the ideal additude, one of gayety 

 and care-free grace. Poise was at 

 a premium. They acted as if they 

 and the friends who formed their 

 little groups were strolling down an 

 uninhabited country lane, engrossed 

 in their own conversation, their own 

 trivial, but private, affairs. 



Their quick, dark eyes took in 

 everything— seeing, estimating, dis- 

 carding. Their eyes traveled right 

 through married men (I ought to 

 know) , and if they lingered upon a 

 certain favorite the exchange was 

 between two alone, and not obvious 

 to the multitude. 



Strictest Decorum Observed. 



The whole affair is conducted 

 along traditional lines of strictest 

 decorum. In the old days it was 

 the only opportunity of girls and 

 men to see and estimate each other 

 before their families arranged mar- 

 riages. Here that necessity exist 

 to a larger extent than in such, 

 metropolises as Buenos Aires. 



The young men are not supposed 

 to speak to the girls, although it is 

 permissible to bow; nor are they 

 allowed to meet a girl during the 

 passeo, or to walk with her, or con- 

 duct her home. 



"How does a young man meet a 

 girl he sees at a passeo?" we asked 

 our host, a native of the city who 

 had conducted us about the plaza. 

 An elderly man, and the father of a 

 large family, he laughed and shook 

 his head: 



"Ah, there are many ways — I 

 ought to know! But mine is an old 

 story. The young men of today 

 know more ways, I have no doubt, 

 than we old ones. 



"What passes between these young 

 people, I don't know. A sign, a 

 word, a glance? Who can say? A 

 flower falls from a young lady's 

 hair? Who am I to say that it 

 does not contain a note? 



"A young man sees a girl? His 

 friends or acquaintances must know 

 her, or one of her friends or ac- 

 quaintances. If he keeps out of 

 sight, would it be ill manners to 

 follow her home? It would be most 

 unmannerly if her parents saw him. 

 If he learns where she . lives, what 

 other avenues would that open to an 

 introduction? 



"There are many ways . . . and the 

 youth of today, it is resourceful, 

 no?" 



* 



Next: Fisherman's paradise. 



