Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1890 — Barnum’s Unique Gorilla. [ARTICLE]

Barnum’s Unique Gorilla.

Col. Hager, who is a boss side-show-man and a collector of oddities, curiosities, and freaks, says: “There is no live gorilla in the United States, and there never was one. Any showman who says to the contrary tells what he knows to be false. In the first place, it is almost impossible to capture a live gorilla. In the next place, if one were captured I doubt if he could live in this country. The gorilla has had a good deal of fun poked at him, but he has the most delicate constitution of anything that crawls, walks, flies, or swims.’' “Didn’t Barnum onee advertise that be had one?” was asked. “Yes, but he got fooled on it. He had offered a large amount of money for a live gorilla, and his aeents scoured gorilla land to get one. Soineuody fihally caught what he thought was a gorilla and shipped it to Barnum in New York. The day the animal arrived and was on exhibition the fact was placarded all over the city. There was an old man in town who had lived many years in the-country where the go i ill a exists. He went in to seo the new arrival, and, after looking at it, said to Mr. Barnum: “That’s no gorilla. No gorilla has a tail." “ ‘But,’ said the quick-witted showman, ‘ this gorilla has a tail, and it is the only one that ever was known to have ODe ’ "However, that didn’t make the animal a gorilla, just the same, for there never was a live gorilla in this country.*— Chicago Tribune. Anecdote About a Famous Bandit. It seems that a noted bandit, Cortina, has been the terror of Northern Mexico for years. Failing to subdue him, the Mexican Government made him a Major General of the army, and put him in charge of the Rio Grande border. He was furnished with a fnll staff and headquarters force, and started out in fnll en. jo/coeut of hie dignity. *At the end of

the first month of his service his military secretary brought the pay-roll for hit approval. It was headed by the name of Major General Cortina, and continued with the names and pay of the other members of his military family, and ending up with the total for the entire amount to be so disbursed. Cortina examined the document carefully and laboriously. But, reaching the end, he burst into an expression of wrath, drew his revolver, and held it at the terrified secretary's head, shrieking with rage: “Villain! What is this? Who is this Total that receives more than Cortina?*