Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1877 — HUNTING BEASTS IN AFRICA. [ARTICLE]

HUNTING BEASTS IN AFRICA.

Who ever even thought of the lives that have been lost, the suffering endured, the great sums of money expended, and the perfect system directing the workings of men and savages far beyond the limits of civilization, making collections of wild animals for the menageries ? Indeed, thebusiness has been so almost exclusively done by two very quiet gentlemen, whose agencies cover nearly half the globe, that beyond the proprietors and managers of gardens and shows only a limited number have any conception of the extent of their operations, or of so much as their existence. The head of the firm, and directing spirit of its workings, is Mr. Charles Reiche, considerably this side of 50, With the comfortable bonhommie manner of an educated, traveled gentleman. His New York establishment, at 55 Chatham street, is passed by unnoticed by hundreds daily; yet from it orders are supplied from almost every traveling show in the United States, from the Zoological Garden in London, and others in Russia, Austria and elsewhere. His large supply depot for this countryisin Hoboken. Henry Reiche, his brother and partner, lives in Germany, where thw have a general supply farm for all the world, with accommodations and appliances for the keeping of almost every bird, beast or reptile from any country or clime in that part of the world which has been explored. They are ready at any time to fill an order for anything from a single canary through singing birds, display birds or trick birds up to a flock of ostriches’, or from a field mouse to an elephant.

Africa, the home of the greater number of fierce, voracious animals, is their most extensive field of operations. In it they have many stations, with sheikhs or chiefs in their employ, and standing inducements offered to natives for choice specimens of rare birds or beasts. During nine months of every year they have a band of- experienced white African hunters traveling from station to station, overseeing and directing the Workings of the natives, and catching elephants, lions, leopards, tigers, and such other beasts ns they may be instructed to obtain. The company, usually composed of four to six, and never more than eight, under the command of Charles Lohse, a veteran hunter and trapper, start from Germany about the Ist of September, and return from Africa early in June. During the remaining three months of the year, which they know as the “rainy season,” the climate is so severe that it is almost certain death for a white man to remain in Africa. A few have tried it, but most of tliem died, and those who survived suffered terribly from fever, and were unable to accomplish anything. The medical treatment is very limited, and confined principally, in the language of one of the men, ‘ 1 to taking horsedoses of quinine until killed or cured; and being cured by the quinine is worse than being killed by the fever.” Starting from Germany the hunters take a complete outfit of clothing, firearms, gifts for the chiefs, and from $7,000 to $12,000 in drafts and letters of credit. They go to Trieste, thence to Corfu, in Greece, thence to Alexandria, and then by rail to Suez. There they exchange all their money for Maria Theresa silver Austrian dollars, the only coin known to the Arabs and Sheikhs of Africa. A Bank of England note is valueless to them, and the brightest specimen of a gold American eagle would not buy the meanest ringtailed monkey. They next take the Turkish steamer to Jedda, and thence to Sarachin, their last stationabefore commencing the long, tiresome and dangerous march across the Nubian desert. They buy camels, water and provisions, and hire such of the sheikhs and other natives as they want, the latter being cheap enough—ss, and occasionally as high as $7 each for the trip across the desert—and when the caravan gets to its journey’s end the poor fellows arc left to get back as best they can. In this manner they travel to Honjahir, the Reiche Brothers’ principal station in Africa, where the distinctions of caste are strictly maintained. Every white man has a “mansion,” which consists of a straw house about? twenty feet wide by thirty feet deep, and divided into two rooms. In such houses they live, eat and sleep, and in one of them they keep the money that has been brought across the desert in trunks, on the backs of camels. No attempt to hide it is made, nor is there any secrecy as to where it is packed during the long journey. So hofltest lU’e the native blacks that in the past sjx years Wfr’a dollar has been lost by carelessness. Frequently there has been 10,000 of these silver dollars in the hut, with only one or two white men in camp, surrounded by negroes, Arabs and half-breeds; yet no attempt at robbery has ever been made, and the half-civilized natives, knowi? 1 # that they arc not entitled to a dollar until they have earned it, never try to get it in any other way. The men sleep where and as they please, and three times a day are given a fair supply of Indian corn, which thev grind, and, after adding a little water, cook over their own tires into a sort of biscuit. The white men have negro women cooks, and live luxuriously. They have egga, coffee, and Indian corn biscuit for breakfast, with a broiled chicken for a relish whenever they want one, for fowls are very plenty. For dinner, maize and beef or mutton, very tough and very stringy. A “ good-conditioned ox” can be bought for $4, and a “good-eat-ing goat” for 50 cents. A little garden truck, which they grow themselves, and onions, which they raise in great quantities, are also eaten. No dinner would be complete without plenty of onions and they are as much in order at either of the other meals, or, indeed, at any time in the day when one feels hungry. Supper is similiar to breakfast, and after that the German hunter’s inseparable evening inend, Ins long-stemmed, chinabowled, fragrant pipe. The interior of their hut would interest a New York artist. Elephant tusks, lion skins, leopard skins, hunting hate and coate, and longtopped boots, rifles, pistols, bright-col-ored flannel shirts, and bite of harness lie scattered about in dire confusion; but in a safe place, where it cannot possibly be disfigured, the only tenderlyused thing within the four strong walls,

a first-class full-sized silver-keyed German accordion. They tell that in the long winter evenings, after the perils and labors of the hunt, Lohse plan on it divinely, while others puff out great clouds of smoke and dreamily think, of the Fatherland. The clearing is on the bank of k little river called the Settet, a branch of the Nile, and is inclosed by a high and thick hedge made of a native tiiem. 'At night, after the animals have been fed, watered and housed or tethered, great fires are built at irregular intervals arounefthe grounds to ■ scare off wiHF watch is set. By 10 o’clock all others are in bed, with the dismal howl of the hyena, the roar of the lien and the shrill shriek of the wild-cat to disturb their dreams of wives and sweethearts. The myriads of gnats, flies and mosquitoes are for a time a great annoyance te the hunters, and a sort of atmisementf or the natives, who, with their Hack hides covered thick with grease, do not mind them, but enjoy the contortions of their white companions. By 11 o’dock all are asleep, and the camp is still until about 5 in the morning, when everybody is astir again, and the business of the day is begun. The native hunters form in parties of about twenty, each with a white leader, and stait <dF< in -dijferent directions, while those who are left in camp occupy themselves in cleaning up, caring for the beasts, making boxes for transportation and cages for the expected new captures. In getting wild animals the rule is to kill the old ones and secure the young; for after any of the beasts have "grown old enough to become accustomed to the free life of the woods, and to hunt their own food, they are treacherous, and worth little for purposes of exhibition. Paul Luhn, one of Reiche Brothers’ men, who has lately returned from Africa with rare birds and animals, tells interesting stories of the perils of the hunt. He says ; “The lion is a fierce creature, and the lioness, when protecting her young, very much worse ; but from long practice we know just how to go after them. A good rifle, firm hands and steady eyes, and we can soon topple the old fellow over. The old lady may take a little longer, but in the end we are sure to kill her, and then it is no trouble to pick up and secure the cub. We try to get these little fellows when they are about three or four weeks old. They are then like young puppies, easily managed, and soon learn to know their keepers. Leopards, tigers and all that kind of animals we get in the same way and at about the same age. Baby elephants are hard to get, ana the hunt is very dangerous. The old ones seem to know instinctively when we are after their young, and their rage is something terrible. The trumpeting of the parents can be heard for a long distance, and quickly alarms the whole herd. The rifle is comparatively useless, and trying to approach them particularly hazardous —yet it has to be done. First, we try to distract the attention of the female from her offspring. Then a native creeps cautiously up from behind, and, with one cut of a heavy, broad-bladed knife, severs the tendons of her hind feet. She is then disabled, cannot wall:, and soon falls to the ground. We promptly kill her, secure the ivory, aild capture the little one. Of course we occasionally have a native or two killed in this kind of a hunt; but they don’t cost much—only $5 or $G apiece. The sheikhs are paid in advance, and don’t ca’re whether the poor devils come back, and so we don’t bother much about them.

Baby elephants we like to get when they are about one year old. Younger ones are too tender, and older ones know too much. They soon get acquainted with ail the camp, and we have lots of fun with them. They are kindly, docile, and as full of capers as the little nigger babies that play with them.” “But of all fierce, ungovernable and lusty brutes,” the hunter continued, “the hippopotamus with young is the very worst, and whenever we start off to get a baby of that kind we calculate to come back with one or more men missing. In the water they fight like devils, and in five minutes will crush in pieces the strongest boat we can use. They are quick as a flash, too, notwithstanding their clumsy appearance, and the oarsmen have to be wide awake to keep out of their way. On shore they are just as ferocious, and the way they can hurry their stumpy little legs over the ground would astonish you. They die hard, too, and take a heap of killing. When such a job is over, you may be sure there is great rejoicing among us; but, as one little hippopotamus is worth as much as half a dozen lions, tigers, and such truck, we are well content to take the risk. We cannot get these babies too young to suit us. One, I remember, though I was not in the hunt, was captured the very day it was born, and the hunters and attendants brought it up on the bottle. It is the same animal that Barnum advertised so extensively as the ‘ Baby Hippopotamus,’ and it is now traveling with his show. Ostriches we run down on horseback, and then catcli them with the lasso. It is an exciting chase, but not particularly dangerous. On these hunts we are entitled to only the young animals we capture. The beautiful skins of the leopards, lions, and other animals we kill, the tusks of the elephants, the feathers of the ostriches, and all other similar spoils go to the native sheikhs and chiefs; and these old rascals are as sharp at a trade as the shrewdest ‘old clo* merchant you have in Chatham street. “ In the encampments the natives assist in taking care of the animals and do general work, but the menial duties are performed by Nubian slaves, who are very cheap and can be bought in numbers to suit. Among the natives the women are looked upon as inferior. Women never eat with their husbands. The husband is allowed four wives and as many slaves as he can corral.” A sufficient number and variety ofanimals having been secured, a caravan is formed to take them across the desert to Germany or America. This usually consists of about one hundred camels, each having its native driver; thirty or forty horses for the white men and Arab hunters and their attendants ; a flock of from 150 to 200 goats, for their milk and also for food, and black slaves to look out for the goats. The wild animalsare secured in strong boxes and* carried on the camels’ backs. They are all Votoig, and are fed principally with goats’ milk, although occasionally, to keep them in good spirits and fine condition, are given pieces of raw goats’ meat. Horses are very cheap there, ranging from sls to S2O each—the natives even cheaper, $7 being thought an extravagant price per man for the trip. Milking goats are worth $1 each, and others about 50cents. The journey usually occupies from thirty to forty days, and all traveling is done between 3 and 11 o’clock in the morning and 5 and 11 in the evening. During midday the sun’s rays are so fiercely hot as to make labor or traveling hazardous, and none is attempted. The route home is much the same as that taken going out, and in due time the beasts are landed, usually with yery little loss, on the great stock wild animal farm Us Charles Reiche & Bro., in Alfeldt, Hanover. There they remain until needed to fill orders of showmen in either Europe or America, while their hardy captors take three months of rest and recreation before starting on another trip. The Reiche Bros, have nearly $250,000 invested in this enterprise, which they have successfully conducted for many years. The extravagance of the prices paid for some beasts js little known. As high as $15,000 has been paid lor a single hippopotamus in good condition. To-day $20,000 would, hardly buy a specinien, as there is not one

in the country that is known .to be for sale. A rhinoceros is worth from $3,000 to $7,000, according to the demand and excellence. Giraffes sell for SI,OOO to $6,000, lions from SOOO to $2,500, leopards from S2OO to S4OO, hyenas about the same, and ostriches from S3OO to SSOO. Elephants vary in price, for, while some have sold for as low as SI,OOO, aS high as slo,oos Ifes been paid without grumbling for a fine, big, intelligent one.— -New York Times.