62 800. OF AM. TAXIDERMISTS, ANNUAL REPORT. 
that it has sometimes been invaded by those who have expected 
to make money, and these cases are the ones that have brought 
to it the least talent and ability. 
Taxidermy to-day, as I see it, is divided into two distinct 
classes, viz.. Museum or Institutional Taxidermy, which is con- 
servative and settled, and Decorative Taxidermy, which is radical 
and progressive. To one or the other every taxidermist by the 
diversity of the nature of the case must belong. By a museum 
conservative I do not mean a man that is without ability or artis- 
tic skill, but a man whose position or class of work demands 
from him the stiff or contracted style of work the average insti- 
tution demands— -mark you, demands. Their demands may be 
reasonable to a certain extent, but too often the strict commis- 
sion comes to the taxidermist : ISlo fine work, no fancy positions — 
we want plain, straight styles. That simply means a lot of speci- 
mens of the “ straight-jacket ” order, and they usually get them 
without any difficulty. 
Now this state of affairs has existed for many years, as far 
back as history dates. When the first specimens were placed in 
the foreign institutions, and from that day almost to the present 
time, the art of taxidermy has struggled to rise. 
It is a good deal like keeping a blooded horse carting stones 
before a fifteen-hundred pound cart, and expecting him to de- 
velop into a trotter. 
All honor to the institutions that have supplied the fraternity 
with work, and have made it possible for the taxidermist to live. 
Although they have sustained the taxidermist largely, the lim- 
ited demands made by them upon his talent has not been such as 
to develop artistic skill, but on the contrary has been pernicious 
to a great extent. This condition of affairs has offered no in- 
centive to improvement. 
I believe I have stated some of the principal reasons why a 
higher degree of excellency has not been reached in the taxider- 
mic art, and will draw the line here, and proceed to consider the 
effects of decorative taxidermy upon the entire art. Decorative 
taxidermy, in my opinion, is the radical agent at work. It is this 
agent that has brought forw'^ard the higher class of work. Some 
of its ideas are whimsical, if I may so term it ; yet, with all this. 
