HAGENBECK AND BARNUM.
At this moment my eye fell upon a large photograph of the celebrated Mr. P. T. Barnum, which hung upon the wall. Mr. Hagenbeck, noting the direction of my gaze, said: “I suppose you know who that is?”
I replied, “Why, it’s P. T. Barnum.”
“Exactly,” said he. “I was walking about the menagerie one day in 1872, when Mr. Barnum was announced. He said: ‘I’ve just come to have a look round. I’ve got an hour or two to spare, and I thought I might as well spend it here as anywhere else.’ Well, sir,” continued Mr. Hagenbeck, smiling at the recollection of his first momentous interview with the great showman, “he stayed fourteen days, and he filled two big note-books before he left me. He was delighted with all he saw, and still more so with all I told him. I spoke about ostrich riding, suggested that it would be a splendid thing if he got up a regular wild-beast hunt in his hippodrome. He was immensely taken with the idea, and wanted me to join him as partner, but this I was not able to do. For many years I supplied him with his animals.”
“Why,” I said, “Mr. Hagenbeck, that opened up quite a new field.”
“Exactly,” he replied. “The training of wild animals is now one of the most important parts of my business. I also undertake the establishment of menageries all over the world. I supply people with their buildings, with their animals, with their keepers, with their trainers. Take, for instance, the Zoölogical Gardens at Cincinnati. I filled them from top to bottom. I recently made one in Rio Janeiro.”