P. T. Barnum's Menagerie Read online

  P. T. BARNUM'S MENAGERIE]

  The Publishers take pleasure in acknowledging the courtesy and aidextended them by the Strobridge Lithographing Co.

  P.T. BARNUM'S MENAGERIE

  Text and Illustrations Arranged for Little People by

  P. T. BARNUM

  and

  SARAH J. BURKE

  New York & LondonWhite & Allen

  Copyright, 1888, by White & Allen.

  Lith. By G. H. Buek & Co. N. Y.

  WITH THE ANIMALS.

  My dear children, unless you have been fortunate enough to be taken tothe menagerie by some grown-up friend, somebody who would patientlyanswer all your questions, and tell you all about the bewitchinglyhorrible animals in the cages, and into whose arms you might run whenthey growled and looked fierce, I do not think you can know the joy ofTom, Trixie and Gay as they entered the menagerie with Mr. Barnum.

  Trixie hugged his right arm tight, as usual, Gay kept fast hold of hisleft hand, while Tom was so anxious to miss no part of the show thathe did not know that he was walking so clumsily as to put Mr. Barnum'stoes in danger; and, notwithstanding they were such old chums, I fancyhe was more than once tempted to say to the boy, "Tom, you are asawkward as a grizzly bear!"

  At the sight of the zebra, Gay laughed aloud. "He is knitted all instripes--he is made of garters!" she said; and she thought the gnulooked like a wild bull "in front," but when he turned round she saidhe was a horse.

  And oh! you should have heard the buffalo snort at Gay! "He wantsto make a meal of baby," said Tom, but the truth was a man had beenteasing him with a cane, and when a buffalo is angry, he is not a verypleasant play-fellow.

  "I mean to hunt the buffalo, out West, when I am a man," said Tom.

  "Then you must hurry and grow up," said Mr. Barnum, "for the animal, inour own country, is being rapidly exterminated."

  "What is the meaning of exterminated?" asked Tom.

  "Killed off," said Mr. Barnum; and Tom thought that a much better wayof saying it.

  "Does a buffalo grow up out of a buffalo bug?" asked Gay. Then they alllaughed at her till she pouted, and Trixie thought, "I must remember totell that to mama."

  The reindeer, the antelope, and the moose were all somewhatalike--"cousins," the children called them; and Gay had a very prettyname for two reindeer that she thought especially beautiful--she saidthey were "Santa Claus's ponies;" and I am sure that even Santa Clauswould have been delighted to drive them.

  Elephants! Just what Tom had been longing for, and it was strange tosee how frisky the great clumsy creatures could be. They stood on oneanother's backs, they tried to waltz, and then two of them, after muchfloundering and capering, jumped over a bar; but not even Mr. Barnumhimself could say they did it gracefully.

  "See those two play see-saw!" cried Trixie, laughing till her littlesides shook, "and that little fellow is grinding a hand-organ!"

  Others, dressed like clowns, were as full of tricks as so many monkeys.The very largest elephant thrust his trunk forward, and Tom whisperedto a boy who stood near, "You pull his front tail, and hear him roar!"But the elephant rolled his eyes toward Tom as if to say, "Bettertry it yourself, young man," and Tom moved back.

  "Mr. Barnum and I remember Jumbo," said he.

  "Who was Jumbo?" asked Trixie.

  "Oh, a tremendous elephant, as big as six of these rolled into one! Hewent to Canada, and there a locomotive smashed into his brain, and heturned over and died. But first he wrapped his trunk around the babyelephant and flung him safe off the track."

  "Good Jumbo!" said Gay with a smile; but there were tears in Trixie'seyes.

  "Yes, baby; and that's the way we would jump for you in any danger,"added Tom.

  Gay smiled sweetly again, but Trixie squeezed her old friend's handso hard that he bent down and kissed her, saying, "But there _is_ nodanger, Toodles!"

  The children were now quite ready to leave the elephants to look atthe ostriches and the storks. I think that Trixie expected to see theostriches wholly covered with long, dangling feathers, such as thoseshe wore on her hat; and she was a little disappointed. The storks wereold friends of hers, because mama had a screen at home, upon whichstorks were embroidered; and some of these birds, like those on thescreen, were resting upon one foot.

  Tom was very much interested in the sea birds,--the albatross, thepenguin, and the auk, but there was such a crowd around their cage thathe came away grumbling.

  "Never mind, Tom," said Mr. Barnum: "come and see the fisherman thatcarries his basket under his chin!"

  Tom did not understand this joke at first, but Mr. Barnum explainedthat he meant the pelican, which has a pouch under its beak in which itcarries home the fish to feed its young.

  "Look out, Trixie!" cried Tom, when they saw the whale. "He swallowed aman once."

  "Did this _very whale_ swallow a man?" asked Trixie, solemnly; "and didyou _know_ the man?"

  "Well, no--not exactly; but I knew _of_ him."

  "What was his name?"

  "Jonah."

  "O, Tom Van Tassel! That was as much as fifty years ago, and Jonahwas a bible man. The whale looks kind and I'm not afraid of him," andTrixie went up very close. "But what makes him so floppy? I shouldthink the whalebones in him would stiffen him."

  And then Mr. Barnum explained that what we call whalebone is somethingthat grows in the mouth of a whale, and is used as a strainer, toseparate the water from the food.

  They thought the shark a mean-looking creature, and they were surprisedto learn that it turns on its back to bite.

  "I'm tired of fish--let us find something furious!" said Tom; so theystarted toward the lion's cage. The great, grand king of them all wastaking his afternoon rest, and he opened his eyes and looked at themonce, as if to say, "Behold and admire! I am the King of Beasts, andyou are only little human Yankees! I had these bars put up to keep offthe crowd. Kings must be neither pushed nor hustled." Then he waved hispaw with a flourish which meant, "Begone!" and Mr. Barnum, seeing theroar coming, said, "Come on, Toodles."

  But Tom staid, and he was glad that he did so. The keeper of the lionsentered the cage, and the excitement began. The poor beasts were allhungry, but the lioness and the little cubs were fed first; and whenKing Lion seemed ready to tear the bars down in his fury, the keeperfired off a pistol, and the angry creature leaped into the air. I thinkeven his own little baby cubs were afraid of him. When he grew quieter,he, too, was fed, and Tom ran to tell Trixie all about it.

  "I am glad I did not stay," she said, "and I have had a very goodtime, myself. I have been looking at the giraffes in harness, and I dothink they make such funny looking horses. They look very much likeostriches--_in the neck_," she added, and Mr. Barnum laughed.

  The giraffe is so tall that it can take its food from high trees, andit very seldom stoops to eat. But when a piece of sugar was put on theground, the temptation was so great that it bent its head down betweenits fore feet, placed near together, and gobbled with a half-glide. Oh,how the people laughed at its awkwardness.

  "What would mama say if we ate like that, Trixie?" said Tom.

  "You could'nt do it," said the boy who had refused to pull theelephants "front tail."

  Far off, in one corner, the children saw something which they thought,at first, was a dog, but as they came closer, it sat up like a monkey.

  "That is a baboon," said Mr. Barnum. "It is so cross that I don'tbelieve it has a friend in the world; while the bright-looking babyourang-outang there, is always sure of a petting. That gray oldgrandfather ourang-outang, however, can be very ugly; but we mustalways be patient with old people," said he, smiling.

  The Happy Family, they all declared, was less exciting, but quite asinteresting, as the lions'
cage. They had enjoyed seeing the monkeysalone, but a monkey isn't half a monkey until you see him with otheranimals. Two solemn, old owls sat perched in one corner, and, when amonkey flung an orange into the face of one of them, the other wouldn'teven wink. A funny old gray fellow put his paw through the bars andpulled off Tom's cap, and it was only by the offer of a handful of nutsthat the owner got it back.

  Another took a guinea-pig in her lap, and rocked it as if it were herbaby; but the sly chance of pulling a rabbit's ear was too much formother monkey, so she