152 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary Russell A. Lewis, Gen. Mgr. 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE:—Forest and Stream is the re¬ 
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ANIMALS IN ZOOLOGICAL PARKS. 
In a recent issue of the New York Sun, Dr. 
William S. Rainsford, started a rather interest¬ 
ing discussion on the subject of animals in cap¬ 
tivity in zoological parks. He raised the issue, 
not only as to whether it is cruel to the animals, 
but whether it is not a hindrance rather than a 
help to students of animal life, in that the ani¬ 
mal in captivity is not the same as the animal 
in the wild. He says among other things: 
“If the object of collecting and maintaining at 
great cost specimens of the wild beasts of the 
world is to give our people, old and young, some 
adequate idea of the wide world’s fauna, then 
the results obtained do not justify either the 
obvious misery inflicted on the caged birds and 
beasts or the large sums of money involved. 
“Who that has lived among the wild life of our 
continent or any other can for a moment doubt 
that, say, the treatment of the birds and fishes in 
the American Museum of Natural History does 
not far more really portray the beauty and 
wonder of the bird and the fish world than can 
any aviary or aquarium tank? 
“The full force of my argument can only be 
apparent to those who know, and more than that, 
have studied wild animals in their natural state, 
but I would try to bring it home to most people 
who know anything of country life by an illus¬ 
tration near at hand. 
“Take the 'case of the common red fox. As he 
lopes across country on mischief bent he is a 
beautiful thing to see, a very incarnation of our 
half tamed countryside. Look at him in a city 
cage. You only see a poor, dwarfed, mangy, 
slinking, nervous beast ceaselessly pacing his pro¬ 
testing way round the narrow beat of his cruel 
little prison. No school child looking at the 
victim of lifelong confinement has any idea worth 
one pin of the really beautiful denizen of our 
wild woods. The educational value of that im¬ 
prisoned fox is nothing at all. I instance the fox 
because many may for themselves mark the con¬ 
trast between the beast caged and the same beast 
at liberty. 
“I might go through the long list of the unfor¬ 
tunates we imprison for life in our zoological 
gardens, and with the exception (and it is only a 
FOREST AND STREAM 
partial exception I hold) of the great cats and 
animals such as the Asiatic elephant that for 
ages has been domesticated, the same cruel con¬ 
trast holds good as in the fox’s case. 
“I am not a scientific man, so I am in no posi¬ 
tion to dispute the advantage claimed for scien¬ 
tific study. It seems, however, that physical 
changes so complete as those wrought by captivity 
in the poor captives must greatly lessen the value 
of such observation. 
“In conclusion, I would venture to hope that in 
the future zoological collections of wild animals 
will be by a pitiful public condemned. The wild 
life of the world will be saved for us, not in the 
menagerie but in the museum. Science is saving 
for us and for our children the real thing. You 
can see it in the Field Museum, Chicago, in 
Carl E. Akeley’s wonderful groups of our Ameri¬ 
can animals. There the real moose and deer 
stand before us as a lover of the wild saw them, 
and a master craftsman’s hand has given them 
an almost perpetual life. You can see them, as 
I have already said, in the splendid bird and fish 
groups in our own great museum and in the other 
animal studies that will soon be placed before the 
public. Such work, work done as it has never 
been done before in any land, by a band of men 
who have studied long and carefully the wild life 
they have trained themselves to depict, will give 
to those who cannot wander a real picture of 
some of the strange, some of the beautiful, some 
of the awful forms of life that have been or 
that are.” 
We are inclined to believe that Dr. Rainsford 
is correct in his premise. It has been stated, as 
a proof of the value of the animals in different 
parks that the attendance at the Bronx Zoological 
Gardens is much greater than the number of en¬ 
trances at Museums of Natural History, where 
stuffed animals and birds are on exhibition. This 
beyond question is true, but it proves nothing. 
The attendance at baseball games is far in excess 
of that at either the Bronx Zoological Gardens 
or the Museum of Natural History. It must be 
remembered that the zoological garden has many 
things of interest besides the animals. The beauti¬ 
ful botanical gardens, the green trees and the 
feeling of outdoorness alone probably would show 
as good attendance figures as at present. The 
animai treated immediately on the ground when 
killed, properly stuffed and mounted, it seems to 
us, would give a very satisfactory idea of the 
animal in life- Then from the economic stand¬ 
point, much would be gained. The amount of 
money expended in the maintenance of the 
zoological garden undoubtedly is far in excess of 
its educational value. We believe that the dis¬ 
continuance of the practice of keeping animals 
captive is worthy of consideration on the part of 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals. 
TEACHING THE ■ OFFSPRING TO FISH. 
This is vacation time—-how do we know it? 
Why it’s the season for it, our readers tell us so 
and, many times, ask us where to spend the days 
from toil. Some fish, some angle, others camp; 
there are those who simply loaf and others are 
there who await autumn and the opening of the 
shooting season—wise say you—well perhaps—but 
at any rate vacation is man’s—and woman’s— 
prerogative and we all enjoy it. Right here let’s 
take up the problem of the sportsman’s son. Of 
course we all admit he is a chip of the old block 
and will inherit the ability to shoot or cast— 
that is the vanity of Dad. Why wait for inheri¬ 
tance to overtake him? How about taking him 
in hand now—some of your time encroached upon 
—perhaps, but watching the boy or girl learn 
is a pleasure you will re-enjoy until your life’s 
end. Take him on the stream, endure with him as 
he tries and tries and tries to cast a fly, only 
to give up, if you let him, only too eager to keep 
on whipping, if you encourage him. Show him, 
if you know, where the trout lie, the most likely 
spot to fish a bass, how to skitter the lily pads 
for pickerel, how to- find the sand-pocket wherein 
lurks the wily striper. Get him a small gauge 
shot gun. A boy of seven can handle a twenty 
gauge, a boy of six a twenty-two calibre rifle. 
Show him at the 'target how to lead a clay or 
sight the bull’s-eye. When the birds and squir¬ 
rels are in season take him, or her along and let 
them actually learn the game—they will hamper 
at first—but a real boy maketh a glad father, 
while a mollycoddle is the heaviness of his 
mother. Make the boy a man this summer. 
" WHAT’S THE SCORES 
We forget now who intimated the imprudence 
of putting a gift cigar into 'the mouth; perhaps 
Mark Antony, Mark Twain, Sylvia Pankhurst or 
Plato’s wives, but anyhow we will eschew literary 
criticism df the “Does heat absorb humor” num¬ 
ber of Life and take a verse as the next text 
for our sermon. 
In hut and palace, field and mart, 
From mountain top to ocean shore, 
One query flutters every heart, 
One eager question—“What’s the score?” 
It may be tennis, golf or chess, 
Or baseball, football, bas'ket-ball, 
Billiards or bowling, still we press 
The same inquiry for them all. 
Not how they played, or well or ill, 
And not the spirit they displayed, 
Nor how they proved their strength and skill— 
But only this, the score they made. 
And thoughtful men and silly fools, 
And underfed and overfed, 
And banks and courts and learned schools 
Are asking merely, “Who’s ahead?” 
And isn’t this the thing we ask 
On every matter, o’er and o’er, 
Not how men do the varied task, 
But “Who’s ahead?” and “What’s the score?” 
AMOS R. WELLS. 
Apparently Brother Wells doesn’t inherit the 
Waltonian desire from his great namesake, else 
he would have mentioned angling in his jingle 
and right here begins our sermon—what’s the 
score? How many did you get? Not, what kind 
of a day did you have? how big was he? did 
you escape the black flies? was your day pleasant? 
But, “How many did you get?” is the tongue 
greeting a returning fisherman meets. Isn’t this 
the altogether wrong conception of a day’s sport? 
Haven’t we learned the physical, mental and 
pleasurable value of a day’s outing, regardless of 
the size of the creel or the amount of the bag? 
Evidently we have not, which fact accounts for 
the necessity of conservation and the game limit 
law. The real sportsman gets his day’s sport out 
of the day in the open, regardless of the num¬ 
ber of birds or fish brought back. Let’s all be 
“real sportsmen” and give thought to the “What’s 
the score” problem. Thanks, Professor Life, our 
gratitude, Student Wells; let’s all learn to kill 
less and enjoy more. 
