Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — A BISON IN PHILADELPHIA [ARTICLE]

A BISON IN PHILADELPHIA

j Living Specimen of Rare American Buffalo Seen on Up*Town Streets. Beeidents of the neighborhood of 11th and York streets yesterday discovmal. once so plentiful, the American bison, trotting along at their very curS" stones. On the plains of the West, where millions of bison grazed free and unmenanced by the white man’s powder, the extermination has been so great that the herd kept by the United States Government at Yellowstone Park Is taking a place In science beside the auk and dodo. The surprise of the Philadelphians, who so unexpectedly found such a rare and valuable specimen roaming at large, may ha Imagined. There was, Indeed, a whole herd of bison grazing near by, and the one they discovered had wandered from it. It is not the habit of the bison to travel alone, the species being accustomed to graze in large herds, both for the sake of companionship and safety. In such large numbers they are very dangerous, and plainsmen say that once they are stampeded nothing can stop their disastrous course. : Realizing their extraordinary opportunity. the people who discovered the bison at once prepared to capture It, Intending to add it to one of the most famous herds of the country. They gave chase to the animal, and It dashed away at a furious pace. People who met It on the street hurried out of Its way with an alacrity that showed how well the danger of a buffalo stampede was known. The plan of pursuit was not to head It off, but to tire the animal out When running wild on the plains It Ig said that frightened buffaloes sometimes run for hundreds of biles before they fall dead. It soon, however, became evident to the scientists who were attracted to the spot by the report of the startling find that the specimen they were after was not In such active training as the flery, spirited bisons of the plains, and waa not as wild as the bisons of the Cooper novels. The animals was eventually captured by a party of scouts and cowboys who were encamped In the vicinity, and was taken back where K belonged. Inside the fence with the other buffaloes and the big gathering of men and horses that go to make up the Wild West Show.— Philadelphia Public Lodger. Astronomers calculate that the surface of the earth contains 81.023,025 square miles, of which 23,814.121 are water and 7,811,604 are land, the water .thus covering about seven-ten Uk# of the earth’s surface. ' Dear weeps but onoe; cheap always wtegi-SMsa