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^[[The Standard, B. A.. June 8]]
[[Newspaper article]]
ZOOS ARE LIKE SCHOOLS
Dr. MANN'S LECTURE TO A.A.U.W.
ZOOS are typical of schools. Lots of people go through them during their lives and learn absolutely nothing, said Dr. William M. Mann, speaking on "The Why of Zoos," at the monthly luncheon meeting held yesterday by the A. A. U. W. at the American Club. "We have zoos for the advancement of science, and for the entertainment of the public."
The first zoo to contain labelled exhibits, said Dr. Mann, speaking in a humorous strain, was at Ninevah, were "each animal was placed by its name." The Greeks loved birds, and their earliest zoo consisted of a pair of peacocks, kept by a wealthy gentleman who charged his friends for seeing them in his back yard. But the first zoo of which there is definite knowledge was founded in China by an emperor of an early dynasty, was called "intelligence Park", and appeared to have had a scientific and educational object. The ancient Romans also had large numbers of wild animals in captivity.
Dr. Mann is a noted zoologist and entymologist, and has travelled in Rhodesia, Sumatra, Singapore, and down the Amazon, as well as in other parts of Asia, Africa and Australia. He is the director of the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C. which is under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution.
In Queens City, in the Rockies, where Dr. Mann was born, there were the elements of a zoo, a coyotte an elk, and a baby bear being kept at the local brewery. Later, when he moved to Lincoln Park he found there was a zoo there, and then in Washington, Dr. Mann met Mr. Blackburn and started out with a bucket and scraper to clean cages. There is a fine art in this work, he claimed, for the cage being the animal's home, it is more comfortable for all concerned if the occupant is disturbed as little as possible.
Years later Dr. Mann returned to the zoo at Washington as its director and became a close friend of Mr. Blackburn's.
In the 70's and 80's of the last century, said the speaker, the Smithsonian Institution at Washington was building up its collection of taxidermic models and would either kill the animals it did not require or send them to the zoo at Philadelphia. Then a site was bought, and when Mr. William H. Blackburn, now 85 years of age and the most noted animals expert in the world, arrived with a travelling circus, he gave up drink, got married and took charge of the making of the National Zoological Park.
Its first tiger was a beast too mangy to be exhibited, which was lent to the state by a travelling circus. Mr. Blackburn cured the mange with oil and medicaments, and on persuading the owners of the circus that it was liable to fits, it became the property of the nation. A kangaroo was obtained for instalments of guinea-pigs at 15 cents each, and the first building to be constructed was the reptile house, always the most popular house at a zoo, Dr. Mann affirmed with an extra entrance charge for visitors, except at the London Zoo where the aquarium was the major attraction.
That was forty-nine years ago, and now Mr. Blackburn is there for life, and it is run by a group of 97 men and contains about 3,000 animals.[[next column]]
In the days when people had money and used to give it away, said Dr. mann, a member of a wealthy, philanthropic family which is known internationally for the charitable institutions it has endowed, visited the Washington Zoo with his wife, and Dr. Mann was eagerly anticipating a substantial donation when he heard the lady ask her husband, "Why do they have zoos?"
The London and Berlin zoos, said Dr. Mann, were the largest in the world.
Dr. Mann told some stories about the animals he had captured, and about those which had got away. In Africa on one occasion he had 460 natives carrying nets like a 2,000 foot long fence which formed a circle a mile in diameter and had caught five waterhogs in three minutes. On another occasion rounding up animals in a cane field with a cluster of yelling natives brandishing spears, a lion had woken up and [[next column]] coughed. A boy walking alone, came upon a buffalo which charged him in the chest and inflicted a slight wound. He claimed three shillings baksheesh, but the lion, and buffalo got away.
Finally Dr Manny invited all his hearers to visit the National Zoological Park at Washington, when they were in the United States, and the president of the A.A.U.W., Mrs. W. E. Dunn thanked him for an entertaining address.
Mrs. Mann and the American Consul-General, Mr. B. Monnett Davis, and Mrs. Davis were also present at the luncheon, Dr. and Mrs. Mann are sailing on Friday by the Brazil. They returned recently from a trip to San Carlos de Bariloche, Mrs. Mann is also an authoress in her own right, her most recent book being "From Jungle to Zoo." Dr. Mann is the author of "Wild Animals In and Out of Captivity," which is contained in the Smithsonian Scientific Series.

[[image-woodcut type print, older bearded man in field with covered wagon in background]]
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