| Having only the Barnum & Bailey visits here I was wondering recently just what happened when animal numbers/conditions changed during a year. Alas, papers here never reported such things! For instance, Daisy the giraffe died on the way over & was not replaced so her cage was not needed, then part of 1898 poor old Nellie the lioness paraded separately with her latest "crop" of cubs. So, did menagerie flats always leave space in case? (we stuffed at least one tiger & elephant here!). The "limited" show, in 1899, had spare cages at Stoke-on-Trent winter quarters - but would Daisy's cage have been there in 1898? or carried out of the way through the 1898 season? Unlikely, but would Nellie & cubs have used it for the few weeks the show needed an extra cage for her & the cubs? I have my thoughts but your side of the 'pond' has the true experts who may well know the definitive answer (or, is there one?). |
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Barnum & Bailey in Europe!
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2 comments:
Bailey got the giraffe “Daisy” from the Cincinnati zoo especially to take to Great Britain for the start of Barnum& Bailey’s five year sojourn in Europe.
At the time giraffes were exceedingly difficult to obtain. The nasty business with the Mahdi in the Anglo-Egyption Sudan had cut off the then best source of African animals for the German dealers.
The Mahdist regime lasted from 1884until 1898 making it almost impossible to get giraffes during that time. Animal catching operations had not yet been established in what is now Kenya and Tanzania.
I assume Bailey planned to use one of his earlier giraffe wagons to haul Daisy while in Europe.
With her death, my bet would be that the giraffe wagon was just set aside, perhaps at Stoke on Trent.
Now, while in Europe, Bailey bought two giraffes which he brought back with him to USA. They were purchased while the show was in France. An invoice dated Nov 1, 1901 shows that they cost 36,900 francs.
On March 1, 1902 B&B paid 3,400 francs for a new giraffe wagon. This was obviously for one of the new animals. I should think that the Daisy wagon was sent over from England for the other new animal.
By 1904 Bailey had four giraffes on the road with B&B. But that could not top the 10 they carried in 1882. Those were transported in a special rail car and taken on the leash to and from the lot.
Bailey had two male Asian elephants killed while in England - - (1) Don in Liverpool in 1898 and (2) Nick in Stoke on Trent on the last day of the 1898 season.
Thanks, that makes sense to me as I know giraffes travelled separately. That suggests at least one space on flats run 1898-1901. Therefore also suggesting there was no problem with room for Nellie's cage. As I say, I know kangaroos/wallabies arrived but they may well have been housed with something else.
Stoke-on-Trent seems likely as a "park" for Daisy's wagon as the 1899 "Ltd." inventory saw numbers of spare wagons there.
I still feel sorry for the almost ever-pregnant Nellie though....
However, might there have been purposely left space on the animal flats in Europe anyway in case of additions?
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