"Exactly," said he. "I was walking about the menagerie one day in
1872, when Mr. Barnum was announced. He said: 'I've just come to have
a look round. I've got an hour or two to spare, and I thought I might
as well spend it here as anywhere else.' Well, sir," continued Mr.
Hagenbeck, smiling at the recollection of his first momentous
interview with the great showman, "he stayed fourteen days, and he
filled two big note-books before he left me. He was delighted with all
he saw, and still more so with all I told him. I spoke about ostrich
riding, suggested that it would be a splendid thing if he got up a
regular wild-beast hunt in his hippodrome. He was immensely taken with
the idea, and wanted me to join him as partner, but this I was not
able to do. For many years I supplied him with his animals."
"Why," I said, "Mr. Hagenbeck, that opened up quite a new field."
"Exactly," he replied. "The training of wild animals is now one of
the most important parts of my business. I also undertake the
establishment of menageries all over the world. I supply people with
their buildings, with their animals, with their keepers, with their
trainers. Take, for instance, the Zoological Gardens at Cincinnati. I
filled them from top to bottom. I recently made one in Rio Janeiro."