Evening Star Newspaper, April 12, 1925, Page 61

: ILLUSTRATED FEATURES The Sunday St MAGAZINE SECTION Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. . C.; SUNDAY FICTION AND HUMOR MOR NING, APRIL 2 1 1925. e - Todav’s Arrivals at Zoo to Be Heard in “Happy Easter” Chorus Symbolism of the Day Is Being Emphasized ;n Events at Government HOmC for B;l'ds and Beasts— "Billy,” the Inveterate Gossip, Who Has Low-Down in All Incipient Romances, Becomes Victim of One of Most Interesting Tales in Kin,qdom of Fur and Feat]‘lers. "Soko.” Former Confirmed Bachelor, Now Engaged in Courting Neighbor—Visitors Pay Much Attention to New Baby Hippopotamus. But There Are No New Arrivals at the Ele- phant House—Some Infant Faces Expected Among the Kangaroos—Reptile Mother Be- lievés in Doing Things on a Largc Scale. BY MARGARET POE HART. | some of the species the mating sea- | son is about to open, and the all-im APPY EASTER the 7 was portant question of selecting the chorus chirped out this|proper companion is obviously in the morning from the inhabi-| minds of Uncle Sam's blg Zoo. tants of about 50 eggs in o the various nests of the| g b IS k. i Zoo. which, according to expectation,| JHE Zoo's inveterate gossip, “Billy, will usher the dlings into life and | the blg black-back gull known Easter at one and the aame time. | to thousands of visitors, spends most This will give a real Easter note]|Of his time whispering his predictio! o T ine "events. 'The egg|to chums. Billy has the low-down homes which are being forsaken are|OR all the inciplent romances in his neighborhood, and not a bill or a of varied hues, and those of the emu Ste mpeckied! avnjonted, and would | covtoEis LysluEiERlleE pantilla o he splendid as ornamentatlon for the |80\ Lo o0 4 good story in Jaster baskets brought to thousands|p,,w ‘5y3" his own romance, which of Washington children this moOrh-|y. caime was forced upon him by the | ing'by “Bunny" Rabbit insatiate desire of the Zoo sclentists Young Washington could Win|to continue his species. Heaven many exgs in _the old-fashioned |knows he was contented with his “pieking” game with one of the os-|idyllic state of single blessedness trich eggs, which is the largest egg | until marriage was forced upon him jald by a bird, and has a tough|by brute man intent only on proving chell. These eggs are marked with|his theories and caring nothing for the dates on which they are laid, and, | the feelings of a self-respecting tax- it all goes well, the ostrich “clutch,” | paying black-back gull. as it is called by Mr. Blackburne, | Bjily has made his home in the headkeeper at the Zoo, will be noisy|pond ‘at the Harvard street entrance with baby ostriches today. Greatito the Zoo for 15 vears or mdre— care has to be taken lest the mother bird break these eggs. Heretofore nol ostriches have been born at the local | state which surely does not exist Zoo, but Mr, Blackburne predicts the |after a wife is introduced into the record may be broken today | background of any bachelor's home. High in the trees of the great flight | Unchecked, he could leave his loose in u state of blissful bachelorhood. He was lord of all he surveved, a cage are many bird nests, safe from |feathers where he pleased, or scatter any marauders, whether of the hu-|his favorite peanut shells anywhere man or animal speci The cage|about his home, unmolested by a will sound with baby cries and cheeps | carping female, intent only on keeping all day, and presence of the little|things in order. ones will mean “Easter” to all its| His mind in this state of lordly inmates, whether bacheior or mar-|freedom, Billy took upon himself rled. the task of being official host of All the symbolism of Easter, in its | Washington’s animal kingdom. He is promise of renewal of life, is being|the court announcer, as it were, and enacted at the Zoo in a wonderful | every one passing his way is amica- drama of animal life. As the chil-[bly greeted in best squawk style. The dren of the city throng the slopes|children love him, and Billy re- of the green hills, intent on €g&|ceives much largesse in the shape of rolling, within the cages and animal | peanuts and other tidbits, dear to his houses the spirit of Easter prevails|bird taste. In passing, it might be said that even In these days of enforced mari- tal ties Billy possesses the poise and swank of the Prince of Wales, albeit Mrs. Billy claims that he is “spotled” by attention and exhibits as much temperament as a prima donna. Billy is a great favorite with the two million or more people who visit the park vearly. N As said before, Billy has the low- down on all the cooing-at the Zoo, : Ry in the presence of the newly born young of several species, while with others of the Inmates it ix the “mat- ing” season, when romance and the instinct for home-making are upper- most, and fill the very atmosphere with interest To those who can look bevond the cage doors, triangle stories, “vamps,” n= well ‘as the sweet tales of true Jove abound in the teeming life of] this nationally known Zoo. Fer 6}/\5 wild. Dinco, dog of A wstralia. W.H. BLACKBURNE, and.oneiofthe.tiger cubs. but with him pride went hefore a fall Now the joke is turned on him and his victims are whispering Billy's story with derisive laughter or what | is akin to it among their kind. After | all his boasts of happiness to be found in bachelorhood, he is now one of th most henpacked birds at the Zoo. His mate, forced upon him, so Billy says, by the keepers, dominates his little world and bullyrags him for all the bird world to sce and jeer about * £ %% HERE his domain was in glorious disorder before, it is now spick ing female, whose mind never seems to rise above her matronly cares long enough even to greet decently and | BY STERLING HEILIG. PARIS, April | HE American expeditiof now | exploring the Sargasso Sea { in the. sclentific exploration ship Arcturus reports by radio that it has “already found volcanic rocks from the bed of the sea.” This is unexpected. The American expedition is not out, avowedly, to study voleanic rock or sea bottom, but the mass of vegeta- tion and collected wreckage of a thousand vears, which make the Sar- gasso Sea a mystery region known to ail. So in the repetition of the word “already” is claimed to lle a first- class secret—the secret object of the Arcturus expedition, which is really to seek for lost Atlantis! It points also to a high-grade news topic which has not yet broken by general reticence on the subject—in this, that others, t0o, are looking for lost Atlantis, but are _regularly ashamed to admit it, as Roger De- vigne has just written, “until there be brought up to the light of day some fronton of a temple, some frag- ment of pottery or other Atlantean vestige! The American expedition has, doubtless, already spoken ships of the French or British navies, the Eastern Cable Co. or the new Society of Atlantean Studies, organized very quietly with large financial resources less than two years ago—all avow- edly engaged in taking soundings of the Atlantic floor, and all with the search, in the back of their heads, for lost Atlant! | gion? ‘Why are they suddenly interested in the mysterious continent. wh according to Plato and the . and span, kept 5o by that exasperat- | Why do they hug the Sargasso re- | pleasantly his old friends as they ride | along. Billy can svmpathize now with King Solomon, who was haraes- | ed by not only one, but 700 wives. | Experience never really kept any | one, bird, animal or human, from ex- | | perimentation. Despite Billy's fate, | which is common Zoo gossip, “Soko,” the big bachelor chimpanzee, feels his | fancy turn lightly to thoughts of love | these balmy Spring days, and Is en- | gaged in a courting episode with a pretty little chimpanzee girl, whose ’nuracll\» methods of shelling pea- nuts caught his vagrant eve from the | opposite cage. | Soko has displayed all his acro- | | batic tricks for her benefit, and has been rewarded once or tw a| | sank between Africa and America | | with the world's first brilliant ci ilization so long ago that yesterday it was only a legend? | Word has gone out that “the Sar- gasso Sea covers the secret of lost Atlantis.” This means, of course, that it cov- ers, inconsiderable extent, if not shoal water, certain parts of the island-continent that sank least In the ocean—so little that they may be dredged, and, as some claim, even be explored by divers! Now, the hurried radio report of the Arcturus scientists that they have “already” found ‘“volcanic rock from the bed of the sea” points to shoal water, or, in any case, depths easy for extensive dredging. Also, volcanic rock shows the At- lantis catastrophe. -All the antique accounts tell how the fabulous land went down in a volcanic cataclysm, with its golden palaces, its King- astronomers and geometers and its flashing armies of war cars! * X x * ¥ Eurove they say that “the Amer- icans will probably get first data of Atlantis, whether they are' seek- ing it or not!” This is because the Arcturus is equipped with the Sonle depth detec- tor, by which it can chart ocean depths from mile to mile, almost while in movement! It is the invention of the United States Naval Experiment Station at Annapolis, by which sound sent out from the vessel is reflected back from | the bottom of the ocean to a receiver. | | The time elapsed from the sending of the sound to its return determines | the depth of the water. With utmost rapidity, this depth de- tector reveals the sea bottom's moun- tains, vallevs and high plateaus— 2 {fleeting smile out of those empty eves, l(emher, 19 that only now and then gleam with a look of real intelligence and the rest of the time seem to be but a faint ghostly reflection of the human. The inmates of the monkey house, opposite the lion house, where Soko makes his home, chatter endlessly over the incident of the courtship, and ome confirmed old bachelors have laid down bets of spare peanuts as to whether or not Soko will regret it when he weds in haste to repent at leisure, as monkeys, even as men, will ofttimes do: Still they cherish the hope that Soko's example may induce some other bachelor to follow suit Soko reached th rk in Sep which may the Bahama rific depths. 7 Only by such rapid charting of great ocean spaces can the outlines of sunk Atlantis be completed, and localities close to the surface, adapt- ed to exploration by divers, be dis- covered. The hydrographic ships of France, Sngland and Spain are using adapta- tions of the Annapolis invention, from descriptions; but when they read, over here, of Prof. Beebe's glass bottom, his drags for the ocean floor and his divers equipped for work in hither- to unusual depths, they are convinced that he is looking for lost Atlantis, quite as much as for the glant quid! The strong European interest in Atlantis dates from several coinci- dences. Atlantis sank, thousands of years ago, in a volcanic cataclysm of the mid-Atlantic so complete that the ocean bottom seemed to settle for good. Down to yesterday, you may ay, the sea-floor had not budged perceptibly. Ascension Island is probably no exception. By tradition, the Portu- guese crew of Joao do Nova saw it rise from the depths on Ascension day, 1501; but it is more likely that do Nova simply discovered it on that date. The African coast is not even vol- canic. The rising, therefore, of a large area of the South Atlantic bed, al- though it passed almost unnoticed in the press, Is a vast and important change. mean shoal water, like banks, close beside ter- WA WK T was discovered when the Eastern Cable Co’s cable between Cape Town and St Helena broke, some 800 from the forests of the French Congo. He was then about 313 years old, and weighed only three pounds. During the Autumn of 1816, or when about 415 years old, he lost his milk teeth and since the perma- nent teeth have developed his growth has been much more rapid than be- fore, Headkeeper Blackburne ex- plains. Soko has been taught by Mr. Blackburne to take his formal meals seated at a table, and after his napkin has been adjusted he scans the menu, writes his order and rings his bell for service. Sliced bananas, rice pudding and other foods are eaten with fork and spoon in conventional manner, Sargasso and Famous Lost Atlantis | miles north of the cape. The repair ship, instead of finding the cable at the depth it was laid in 1899, at 2,700 fathoms, or just over 3 miles, picked it up only a littte more fhan three- quarters of a mile deep. So, the At- lantic bed must have risen 2 miles in the past 25 years, south of St. Helena. and no one knowsow far north. It aftects European geographers greatly. ¢ It recalls Atlantis. Probably the sunk Atlantis surface has risen pro- portionally in such rising of the Atlantic bed. Parts of it which sank least, they say, are mnow probably almost shoal water, hidden in the abandoned areas of the Sargasso Sea! As a fact, there has been a fairly complete charting of the probable situation of Atlantls, from existing data before the American invention of the depth detector. Curiously, this outline is exactly within the dead waters, free from currents, supposed to cause the flour- ishing of Sargasso seaweed and hold the collected drift of Atlantic wreck- age. But, now, they say that “Atlantis is the cause of the Sargasso Sea"—that is to say, the cause of the dead waters. It revives the old tradition. Ovid, Latin poet, knew the existence of the Sargasso Sea, and suggests, in one of his immortal poems, that it is a portion of the lost continent of Atlantis. The recent earthquakes intensify the interest. The Atlantic seaboard, on both sides, has been so immemorially free from such disturbances that the re- cent shocks (in England and Scotland as well as from Canada southward) recall, at once, the rising of the At- lantic floor: 5 B8 Jwo Ostrich Heads | | day. | gruntlea | numerous eggs are hatched by much to_the joy pf the children who crowd about his'® cage Although Soko is the most impor- tant of the monkey family at the Zoo, his little brothers and sisters will be| much in ence house and annexe in the monkey outdoor vards to- Several of the monkeys will proudly exhibit their new-born Lest we forget, Soko has been'dis- of late over the attention visito are showing the new baby hippopotamus, who was born in the cage directly opposite his a month 486 today. The Baby “hippo" appar- ently is not aware of Soko's jealousy, for he registers great joy as he nurses, despite the big audience that gathers abont his nursery, but it is clearly obvious that Mother Hippopo- tamus dislikes Soko's raging antics There are no young at the ele- phant houses. The old lady ele- phant in the big house is a self-con- fessed spinster. but the two small lady elephant little house below confided to me that she thought it was a shame that Mr, Blackburne did not have the grace to secure some masculine escort for a perfect lady to the peanut parties frequently given in the house. She wistfully rocked her trunk to and fro, in much the manner with which a cradle is rocked, as she spoke. is little doubt that Spring has come to the elephant house as well as to other portions of the Zoo, and here's in the hoping that a jungle prince will crash through the woods and court Mile. Susanne Elephant before the Winter sets in again Young kangaroos, held in the pouches of their mothers, will attract hundreds of visitors today. From the time the young are first noted moving in the pouches it is about three months before the littiesanimal first puts his head out in the open, according to the Zoo's headkeeper. Mr. Blackburne expects to see some new faces today The reptile world of the Zoo is see- ing to it that the present-day Edens, despite the reputed dryness of America, will not lack their snakes. The reptile mother believes in doing things on a large scale. nce, however, gives, as a reason for this extraordinary fecun- dity, the high risk of life sustained by the young snake, which, while it preys on others at will, is itself the target for the death clutch.of many snake-devour- ing animals and birds. As is well known, during the Winter time snakes endure a period of hiberna- tion, when they lie dormant while eggs are being formed. At Easter time, espe- cially when the Christian holiday feast marks the opening of Spring season, they come out of this hibernation and hatch the eggs Although the alligator voung have been hatched out for some weeks and the babies are resting on the backs of thelr parents-at present, their method of nesting is interesting. The nest of the alligator has frequently been de- scribed to me by old residents in Florida as resembiing the nests made by the wild ‘razorback” hogs of that country. It is a great mound of muck, grass, moss and sticks, placed in a re- tired spot;’and is said sometimes to be carefully guarded by the female. The heat generated by the decaying vegetation. ©On very good authority it is stated that the Florida alligator deposits its eggs in the sand, where they are hatched by the heat of the sun. At the Washing- ton Zoo the alligator pool occuples a sun-heated space in the center of the lon house, where artificial nesting is provided. * Kk x ¥, the slligator pool in the Zoo are about 25 specimens of various sizes. The larger alligators are cannibals and, when hungry, do not hesitate to swal- low the young of their own species. the younger of | There | But, of course, no children have been thus eaten at Washington's Zog. Mr. and Mrs. Be soon be hold- ing a reception to present four cubs, born in January, to the public. The lit- tle hears are very delicate and are han- dled with much care. | The arrival of three baby tigers was | met with great interest. They were born | March 27, each weighing about 1% | pounds. They will not be on exhibition | for some weeks vet | And then there is'a new buffalo, a | deer and a Japanese monkey. Mr. Lilford Crane of China, contrary to most of his species, does not spend all of his time standing on one foot, but indulges in friendly greetings to visitors, and is an imposing figure of bird dignity | as his bright eyes watch his guests, per- | haps in the faint hope that a delicacy of some kind or other may be forthcoming. America’s own bird, the eagle, is well represented in the local Zoo, and on the tree in the accompanying picture mmay | be seen four noble specimens of this na. onal The American eagle is as | brave as a lion and majestic in its | fight. The eagle in peace time is | mild mannered, but let the honor of the United States be impugned and it will be seen that the eagle will be among the | “first to fight.” “Dingo,” a wild dog of Australia longs sometimes, 1 know, for the free- dom of his tame brothers who Toam the streets of the Capital at will. He is a friendly soul, and has a gentle look from his nice brown eyes, and I am sure could quickly be made into a pet. Knowing | the love of such wild things for freedom | I felt deep sympathy in my heart for | the caged animal, and know that if the | bird time comes he ever has the privilege of @ home life he, like his domesticated brothers, will be man's best friend. The busy little otters from Florida teach many a lesson of industry and patience to the children who visit the inhabitants of the Zoo, for these quaint little beings tofl steadily on their self-appointed tasks of building little enclosures. The pride of ' the' Zoodf least to himself—is a gorgeous peacock, who shares the proverbial vanity of his race, and, to atifact praise, spreads jout his. wondrous tail, which sur- passes anything that might be fashioned by modiste or artist. Percy Peacock is a good fellow, however, despite this slight tendency to boastfulness,. and will condescend to partake of a favorite tidbit of pea- nuts from admirers. : Washington parents should realize in even greater number than they do the thrilling littl. city of animals and birds that woi at the National Zoological Park nstruct and In- terest their chjld In these days, when children ar. too blase and sophisticated, it will be well to give them a glimpse of the wholesale jactivities and happenings of these happy inhabitants of the Zoo. Counting “Confetti. (QUT of the many intricate jobs done by women in the new ticket of- fice just opened by the London Gen- eral Omnibus Co., Ltd., at Chiswick, “confetti counting” is surely the strangest, says the Sclentific Amer- fcan. When a check is desired on the number of tickets sold during an omnibus journey, the conductor's bell punch is opened and the tiny clip- pings of paper are all poured on the table. The girl, helped by a “metal finger,” sorts and counts the clip- pings, which are built up into little heaps‘ of confetti all the same colors, from which it is easy to calculate sold. v 4 how many penny ‘rides” have been |