Newspaper Page Text
Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1869, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
VOL. 111.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
WILD ANIMALS.
\K picture is not only well
calculated to please the eye of
r our readers, but to instruct
and improve their minds. In it we
can see a large gathering of animals
from various parts of the world —inhabi
tants of the water as well as of the earth
—a great many of them being recogniz
ed at once. A large number of our
readers have, no doubt, seen the picture
often before, but there are others who
have not, and we know the little folks
love to look at and read about animals
and birds of every kind.
The habits of these animals differ
very much, and their mode of obtaining
food is sometimes truly astonishing.
The eagle you see perched upon the
overhanging limb, is no doubt contem
plating the most expeditious manner of
obtaining a dinner; and, as it is about
to take wing, it perhaps beholds in the
distance an object which will serve that
purpose. Then we see, reposing on the
MACON, GEORGIA, AUG. 14, 1869.
ground, evidently well contented, a fine
specimen of a cuw —an animal well
known to all our young readers. Scat
tered around, we - ee the deer, the horse,
the elk, the whim and black bear, and
many others —some savage, others do
cile.
Here in the grand old forest, or in
the open plain, they are free. No curb
ed bit, no crjuel rope confines them.
; Theii step is lofty, and in their primi
tive state they are as happy as animals
ever get to be.
Livingstone, Speke and Barth, and
other travelers in Africa, have given us
accounts of a great variety of new kinds
of animals, plants, flowers and trees,
which they encountered in the progress
of their journeyings in that wild, unciv
ilized country.
Some of the wild animals of Africa
and other countries have been brought
to this country, and placed in cages.
They are then carried over the country
and exhibited as great curiosities. Peo
ple are fond of looking at them, for
there is a strange fascination about
these creatures that is almost irresisti
hie. Many of you have seen and doubt
less admired them, as you looked
through the bars of their narrow homes
and saw them going to and fro in one
everlasting walk, as it seemed.
But, being thus “ eabbined, cribbed
and confined,” causes them to lose
much of their spirit and beauty. The
lion, for instance, in a cage, is a very
different animal from what he is in the
forest. In the one he is a prisoner,
broken in spirit, often by harsh treat
ment ; but in the forest he is a mon
arch ! When he takes his walks, all
other beasts give
him wide space, and
when he roars the
ground shakes. He
is terrible in battle,
and there are none
equal to him in
strength.
As with the lion,
so with the tiger and
others—they all ap
pear different in the
small cages we usu
ally see them in and
in their native for
ests and jungles. In
the picture, you see
them in all their
native majesty. In
the show, you be
hold the same ani
mals, it is true, but
they are little more
than sliadows of
what they once were.
These animals, or
rather some of them,
are taught to per
form tricks for the
amusement of the
people w r ho go to
see them in the
shows ; but it is not
prudent for any one
but their keeper to
venture near them,
for one of their tricks
they learned from
nature, and that is
to kill people. This
they do frequently
in their native woods, and sometimes
they even kill their keeper. They are
never so thoroughly tamed as not to
love the taste of blood, the smell of
which will rouse them to fury.
We have not time or space to more
fully describe the picture, but hope our
little readers will examine it closely,
and, if possible, get some good book of
animals, and study their dispositions
and habits. They will find much to as
tonish and a good deal to amuse, en
lighten and instruct them in the anec
dotes related of some.
No. 7.