One of the most exciting and amusing episodes connected with my career
as a showman is that which passed into Gotham history as "the bear hunt
on Fifth Avenue." And certainly nothing could be more strange and
picturesque than a hot chase after a ferocious polar bear along this
aristocratic thoroughfare!
In 1873 there were no polar bears in America, and I thought it would be
a good stroke of business to obtain some of these beautiful and
imposing animals for my menagerie. Therefore I sent an expedition to
the Arctic waters to capture a pair. My men finally succeeded in
landing two enormous polars in New York. In the process of shifting
them from the shipping-box one of these monsters made his escape, and
started on a run down the middle of Fifth Avenue. His course was marked
by general consternation. Children playing on the streets, seeing an
immense white bear lumbering toward them at full speed, screamed and
fled in every direction for shelter; horses, frightened at this unusual
spectacle, became unmanageable and ran away; nurse-maids, wheeling
their small charges, were stricken helpless with terror, and even the
street dogs fled howling down the cross streets and into business
houses. Everywhere disorder and terror reigned supreme; the streets
became suddenly deserted, and one would have supposed that a plague had
instantly depopulated the city. The police were called out from every
adjacent station as soon as it became known that a white bear was loose
in the streets of New York. The poor animal, unaccustomed to the
strange medley of metropolitan civilization, was more frightened than
those who fled before him.
[Illustration: A BEAR LOOSE IN FIFTH AVENUE.]
Finally, by the aid of the police and some of the braver citizens, the
beast was driven into a basement of a private residence, and there
shot. Had the people only realized it, the creature could easily have
been captured alive; but fear reigned in every heart, from the child to
the policeman, and the latter would not consider anything save instant
death to the bear. The animal was very valuable and had cost me a large
sum of money, not only for its capture but also for its transportation,
and I was exceedingly sorry to lose him in this way. I considered
myself exceedingly fortunate, however, to escape as easily as I did,
for had the bear done any harm I should have had to pay heavy damages.
No person fortunate enough to witness the tumult of that exciting scene
can ever forget the bear hunt on Fifth Avenue!