Richard Harding Davis

“ It degrades the bear and degrades me and you.”
“No, it bores me,” said Kelly.
“If you understood nature,” retorted Herrick, “and nature’s children, it would infuriate you.”
“I don’t go to a music hall to get infuriated,” said Kelly.
“Trained dogs I don’t mind,” exclaimed Herrick. “Dogs are not wild animals. The things they’re trained to do are of USE. They can guard the house, or herd sheep. But a bear is a wild beast. Always will be a wild beast. You can’t train him to be of use. It’s degrading to make him ride a bicycle. ”

“ They work. Those bears are loafers. They’re as well fed as pet canaries. They’re aristocrats.”
“But it’s not a free life!” protested Herrick. “It’s not the life they love.”
“It’s a darned sight better,” declared Kelly, “than sleeping in a damp wood, eating raw blackberries——”
“The more you say,” retorted Herrick, “the more you show you know nothing whatsoever of nature’s children and their habits.”
“And all you know of them,” returned Kelly, “is that a cat has nine lives, and a barking dog won’t bite. You’re a nature faker.” Herrick refused to be diverted. ”

“ A domesticated animal can’t return to a state of nature, and live.”
“Can’t it?” jeered Herrick. “Did you ever read ‘The Call of the Wild’?”
“Did you ever read,” retorted Kelly, “what happened at the siege of Ladysmith when the oats ran low and they drove the artillery horses out to grass? They starved, that’s all. And if you don’t feed your bears on milk out of a bottle they’ll starve too.”
“That’s what will happen,” cried Jackson; “those bears have forgotten what a pine forest smells like. Maybe it’s a pity, but it’s the fact. ”

“ Herrick suggested that, while the beautiful eyes might seek those of another man, the Lakes of Killarney would always remain where you could find them. Herrick pursued his new love in Connecticut on an abandoned farm which he converted into a “model” one. On it he established model dairies and model incubators. He laid out old-fashioned gardens, sunken gardens, Italian gardens, landscape gardens, and a game preserve.
The game preserve was his own especial care and pleasure. It consisted of two hundred acres of dense forest and hills and ridges of rock. ”

“ And when they fled from him in terror to caves and hollow tree-trunks, he wished he might call them back and explain he was their friend, that it was due to him they lived in peace. He was glad they were happy. He was glad it was through him that, undisturbed, they could live the simple life. ”

“ They are no longer slaves and puppets—they are their own masters. For the rest of their lives they can sleep on pine needles and dine on nuts and honey. No one shall molest them, no one shall force them through degrading tricks. Hereafter they can choose their life, and their own home among the rocks, and the——” Herrick’s words were frozen on his tongue. From the other end of the terrace came a scream so fierce, so long, so full of human suffering, that at the sound the blood of all that heard it turned to water. ”

“ I’ll bet if you could ask them whether they’d rather sleep in a cave on your farm or be headliners in vaudeville, they’d tell you they were ‘devoted to their art.’”
“Why!” exclaimed Kelly, “they’re so far from nature that if they didn’t have that colored boy to comb and brush them twice a day they’d be ashamed to look each other in the eyes.”
“And another thing,” continued Jackson, “trained animals love to ‘show off.’ They’re children. Those bears ENJOY doing those tricks. They ENJOY the applause. ”

“ And I’ll bet you when those bears once scent the wild woods they’ll stampede for them like Croker going to a third alarm.”
“And I repeat,” cried Kelly, “you are a nature faker. And I’ll leave it to the bears to prove it.”
“We have done our best,” sighed Jackson. “We have tried to save him money and trouble. And now all he can do for us in return is to give us seats for the opening performance.”
What the bears cost Herrick he never told. But it was a very large sum. As the Countess Zichy pointed out, bears as bears, in a state of nature, are cheap. ”

“ With Ikey she was especially loath to part.
“I’ll never get one like him,” she wailed, “Ikey is the funniest four-legged clown in America. He’s a natural-born comedian. Folks think I learn him those tricks, but it’s all his own stuff. Only last week we was playing Paoli’s in Bridgeport, and when I was putting Bruno through the hoops, Ikey runs to the stage-box and grabs a pound of caramels out of a girl’s lap-and swallows the box. And in St. Paul, if the trombone hadn’t worn a wig, Ikey would have scalped him. ”

“ The bears, Ikey in one cage and Bruno and Clara in another, travelled by express to the station nearest the Herrick estate. There they were transferred to a farm wagon, and grumbling and growling, and with Ikey howling like an unspanked child, they were conveyed to the game preserve. At the only gate that entered it, Kelly and Jackson and a specially invited house party of youths and maidens were gathered to receive them. ”