CINCINNATI ZOO GUIDE 
the grounds, the erection of buildings, and the purchase of 
birds and animals at the start, but also the maintenance and 
constant enlargement of the collection and constant improve¬ 
ments of grounds and buildings. And so it was that a large debt 
began to accumulate. This was liquidated by selling off part of 
the land not used, for a sub-division. 
With renewed hope the Garden was then greatly improved. 
The animal and bird displays were added to from time to time 
until the collection in point of variety was equal to any in the 
world. Then the general financial distress fell on the country, 
hard times and dark days came again to the Garden, and 
in 1897 it was found that the debts had accumulated beyond 
any possibility of their being paid by the Garden, and, after 
careful consideration, it was decided to place the company in a 
receiver’s hands. This was done on January 22, 1898. The court 
named as receivers, Hon. Albert Fischer, who had always been 
a staunch friend and supporter of the Garden since its inception, 
and Hon. Gustav Tafel. Later Mr. George Hafer was appointed 
co-receiver when Mr. Tafel became mayor of the city. These 
gentlemen undertook the difficult affair with only one object in 
view, namely, to “save the Zoo.” 
Fortunately, they and others greatly desiring to preserve the 
Zoo to the city of Cincinnati were able to interest a large num¬ 
ber of the most public-spirited citizens of the city, and the 
large amount of money necessary to satisfy the debts (many 
debtors and old stockholders proving to be the most lenient) 
and take the Garden out of the receiver’s hands was generously 
subscribed by these men, who were not looking to their financial 
advantage but to the main object of preserving the Zoological 
Garden, making it one of the city’s chief attractions, and a 
pride to all Cincinnatians. 
As a result, there was organized in 1899 the Cincinnati 
Zoological Company, largely through the efforts of the late 
Mr. L. B. Harrison. The future of the Zoo seemed to be assured 
and another stroke of good fortune occurred in December 1901, 
when Mr. W. Kesley Schoepf, president of the Cincinnati 
Traction Company, which had in that year just leased the local 
street railway system, perfected plans by which that company 
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