Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1886 — The Menagerie. [ARTICLE]

The Menagerie.

The hippopotamus. —Yes, as I was about to observe, mum, this is the hippopotamns—the beautiful river-horse of the Nile. In his native land he feeds on the lotus flower and the papyrus plant. No, my hoy, he never climbs and sports in trees, as doth the little busy monkey and the brisk and gam» bolsome baboon, thought he is sometimes seen takin’ a stroll along on the bottom of; the sea. At certain seasons of the year, mum, river horses goes to bathe in the Nile in sich wast numbers as to dam the river, causin’ those inundations of the Avalley as perjuces that wonderful fertility of which we have all read. No, aunty, he doesn’t open his mouth that way because he’s sick; he’s never sick except once in a great while when he,happens not to be in good health. No, mum, he’s not sul> ject to the toothache. He’s a werry affectionate creetur, and he only means to smile when he shows his teeth like that. Ah! could have told you, sir, that you’d loose the tail offn your, coat if you persisted in leanin’ against the cage of the wishious bobtailed baboon. The ounce.— My good woman, what you see before you is an ounce, hut it is an ounce that weighs many pounds. This is a little joke that we have about the animal. You may allow your little boy to laugh, mum. Even in this great moral exposition we are not averse to little harmless witticisms that advance knowledge and improve the understanding. The children, mum, generally admire the joke about the ounce. A remarkably bright little boy that of yours, mum'?.'already begins to show the penetration of his mother. Oh, your sister’s child?. You are fortunate, mum, in havin’ such a sister. She is already married, I presume? If that South American sheep spit in your eye, you young rascal, it Avas because you was apunchin’ of him up! The hyena. —Here Ave have the wild high-ena of the hills. He ransacks graveyards, digs up dead bodies and devours them. His native home is in the tombs and pyramids of Egypt, and his nat’ral food is mummies—the P®tiphars and Pharaohs. This is the highest ena now trav lin in the United States. We 'had a low ena for a few months, but found he was too low for a high moral show sich as this, so had him shot. Madam, I Avould advise you ta stand further hack from the cage if the little darling there in vour arms has not been vaccinated, for the animal now under consideration had half a small-pox patient for his breakfast this mornhi’. —California Maverick.