The Zoo By Night

1907

Gleaming Eyes In the Blackness Give a Flavor of the Wilds

The average grownup who visits the zoo thinks it rather a dull sort of show, for the fact that the animals are captive robs them of all the romance that would attach to them in their native forests.

But let the blase sightseer obtain permission to visit the zoo at midnight, and his impressions will be very different. Darkness hides the bars and the boards, and the eyes of some wakeful creature gleam maliciously at you. For the moment you imagine that you are in the wilds, on equal terms with the creatures around.

Poised on the swings and platforms at the top of their cages sleep the monkeys, instinct surviving their loss of freedom, for in the forests they had to sleep thus to avoid the beasts of prey.

Here rests a lioness, prone upon her back, her legs rigid in the air and her paws hanging limply down. There reclines her lord, asleep upon his side, his paws turned in and his general pose not unlike that of a dog.

The more cunning and more cowardly of the animals do not seem to sleep at all, for as soon as they hear our approaching footsteps they give us their greeting with snarls and malevolent glowering and watch us suspiciously till we depart. — Pearson's.

Man, 87, Lathes House at Night; Is Jailed

1920

Complaint is Withdrawn and Aged Toiler Praised

OAKLAND, Cal. — The night laborer is not welcomed at Piedmont, Oakland's exclusive residence section. Because he insisted on lathing a house during the nocturnal hours, A. F. Emery, 87 years old, was taken into custody and spent the night in jail.

Within the space of a few minutes no less than eight telephone calls reached Sergeant Phil Brady of the Piedmont police at 3 o'clock a.m.

Brady hurried to a house in Piedmont Manor, and found a man lathing a house by the light of an oil lamp.

"What are you doing here at this hour of the night?" Brady asked.

"I'm working," replied the aged lather, "and no one's going to stop me."

Brady took Emery to jail, but when F. Paramino appeared to swear to a complaint and saw who was the night disturber, he refused to prosecute.

"Such industry should be rewarded, not punished," he said.