USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Rochester and Monroe County: A history and guide > Part 14
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The South American jaguar looks so like a gigantic, gentle house cat that one has the feeling of having wandered
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into the land of Gargantua, but an ominous sign over its cage warns visitors to "Keep outside the railing."
Looking at the Bengal tiger, one understands the poem beginning "Tiger, tiger, burning bright." Its hide is nature's most skillful camouflage. Black traceries on a yellow background simulate the shadows of tree branches on the yellow Bengal sands. The tiger carries his hideout with him, rendering him nearly invisible in his natural surroundings.
The spotted Indian leopard has the most startlingly vivid coloration of any of the "cats." No doubt many of the zoo's lady visitors envy him his beautiful fur coat.
The coyote is a wolf with an inferiority complex. He is as timid as the red fox, without the fox's beautiful brush. On moonlight nights he comes out of his shelter, sits on his haunches, and howls to the moon of his homesickness for the western prairies.
Tired strap-hangers on street-cars might well envy the Australian kangaroo. His immense tail is a prop, a spring- board, and a fifth leg, enabling him, in the Australian bush, to cover the ground in prodigious leaps. Propped on his tail he folds his insignificant little forelegs meekly and surveys the crowd with his mild, sheepish face. But his mildness is deceptive; one kick of those powerful hind legs would kill a man.
The water birds have a luxurious outdoor cage which ex- tends across the entire southern end of the Zoo Building. Here they stage many impromptu little comedies. The grave and ancient pelican looks most benignant, but he has a malicious disposition, pursuing the smaller waterfowl to snatch a morsel of food from their bills. The ducks, especi- ally, fear him, and whenever the old tyrant approaches they
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meekly drop whatever morsel they have in their bills and waddle hastily away.
The blue cranes fancy themselves as dancers, and when the sun is warm upon their pool they spread their wings and execute strange awkward whirls and toe-dances.
The parrots are the hoodlums of this bird theatre. From their perches in the gallery they emit raucous hoots and cat- calls. They are dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, vivid scarlets, blues, and yellows.
But for splendor of apparel the peacock outdoes them all. He is a vain Beau Brummel, and has a right to be, for no words can describe the magnificence of his plumage. He wears a tufted top-knot of iridescent blue to match his splendid collar, and trails his coronation robes about the cage. In the moulting season his legs are entirely nude, and he finds himself in the embarrassing predicament of a king who has donned his royal robes and forgotten his trousers.
The mourning doves are pessimists. Whenever there is a lull in the pandemonium of bird-calls, squawks, and whistles, their melancholy, resigned complainings are heard.
There is nothing regal in the appearance of the golden eagle. His smoke-colored feathers droop forlornly, and he sits on the floor of his cage, disconsolate, grieving for the wide domain of sky which he has lost. He can scarcely, by frantic flappings of those great pinions, lift himself from the floor to the perch in the old tree stub in his cage, because the sand-sprinkled floor provides too slippery a take-off.
On an outdoor stage enclosed with steel netting at the north end of the building, four shows are given daily. Well in advance of the beginning of each show, (10:00, 1:00, 3:00, and 4:15), the benches are filled with an enthusiastic audi-
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ence. Three seals, Beauty, Patsy and Red, are star performers in the first three shows. They come flopping joyously onto the stage, eager to go through their act. Each successful stunt is rewarded with a morsel of raw fish. The seals, their hides glistening in the sun like black satin, delight their child audience by many astonishing feats. Red expertly balances a surf ball on his nose while he does a "triple roll" and climbs up and down a step ladder. Patsy plays a solo of one note on a horn, while Beauty, at the trainer's command, "sings." Pointing his mustached snout skyward he voices a long-drawn, doleful note like a. sheep's ba-a-a, accompanying his song by the operatic gesture of beating his chest with his flipper.
Four o'clock is dinner time in the zoo, and by their in- creased restlessness as the time approaches, the birds and beasts show that their appetites are accurate timekeepers. There is an eager air of expectation about the crowds of visitors, too, for feeding time is one of the highlights of the show.
The waterfowl scramble and fight over their raw meat, fish, and scraps of bread. The monkeys make a tremendous chatter over their feast of sliced apples and bananas, pea- nuts, and chopped lettuce. And the "cats" snatch vora- ciously at raw meat, keeping up a continual threatening growl while they eat.
Meanwhile Old Man Chimpanzee is having a tantrum. He kicks the steel paneling of his cage, creating a thunder- ous racket that almost drowns Sally's hungry trumpeting.
At 4:15 the outdoor benches are again filled with children, eagerly awaiting the zoo's most popular event, the Chimp's Banquet. For the one-act play the trainer sets the stage with a small table and chair, and the children's favorite actor, Tuffy, the chimpanzee, is brought in. He is dressed in a
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sailor suit, a mischievous little Jack tar. The children sit perfectly still, rapt in ecstatic enjoyment of this fairy tale come true-this play of enchantment performed by an animal who acts like a human being and apparently under- stands whatever is said to him.
Tuffy is a delightfully friendly little fellow. Through the steel netting he thrusts a black paw to shake the hands of his small admirers, his face split in a white-toothed grin. An actor with a stage personality! He is reluctant to leave all this flattering attention, but his appetite is stronger than his vanity, and at last he is persuaded to sit at the table. The feast begins. Soup is served, Tuffy is given a spoon, and with a daintiness that is a lesson in table etiquette he silently spoons his soup. He touches his mouth with his napkin, the soup dish is removed, and the second course is served. This consists of sliced bananas, and is eaten with a fork.
The show goes on. Cocoa is served in a glass. Over the top of his tumbler the chimp rolls his eyes at the children. He would enjoy playing with them, but the trainer's eye is on him. He drinks his cocoa, tipping the tumbler for the last delicious drop.
At a command from the trainer the Old Man carefully stacks the tumblers and wipes the tabletop with a damp cloth. The meal is over and dignity relaxes. The Old Man makes an affectionate grab at the attendant's arm, an invi- tation for a bit of play. The attendant tickles him, and then occurs the most startling feature of the whole show. The chimpanzee laughs! His laugh is silent, but the thrown- back head, the widely opened lips, and the display of a mouthful of teeth are as expressive of joy as is any human laughter. Man has always asserted as one of the proofs of his superiority that he is the only animal who laughs; yet here is an animal that laughs too.
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It is evident that the chimpanzee enjoys the show as thoroughly as does the audience, and the way he clings to his chair when the trainer attempts to lead him away re- minds one of a reluctant child at bedtime.
From time to time it is planned to add new features to these outdoor shows which have made of the zoo one of the city's most attractive places for children to visit.
ROCHESTER MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Location: Corner of Bloss and Backus Sts.
Transportation: Dewey Ave. car line. Hours: Weekdays, 9-5. Saturdays, 9-12.
The best time for children to visit the museum is on Sat- urday forenoons between 10 and 11, for then is enacted the Treasure Chest program, a little playlet showing the cos- tumes, customs, and folk dances of some foreign country. Usually refreshments are served, each member of the child audience being given a sample of food typical of the country being represented.
First floor: Hall of History and Period Rooms
A museum is an enchanted place. It holds within its walls the things that history tells about. When a person enters the Hall of History he leaves this twentieth century and finds himself back in the days when the Indians lived in the woods where Rochester now stands, nearly a century and a half ago.
The Pioneer Kitchen has a strange past. It was once a part of the old Steele Tavern built between 1790 and 1800 near East Bloomfield. When the tavern was destroyed the kitchen was taken apart, moved to the museum, and rebuilt
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as it is today. The small window panes of flawed, greenish glass were made many years before plate glass was invented. No one had stoves when that fireplace was built.
It is interesting to see how cooking was done in those days. In the large kettle swinging on the crane was cooked venison, bear's meat, or other wild game. Johnnycakes made from corn meal ground in Ebenezer Allen's mill were baked in the oven built into the side of the fireplace.
The little wooden mortar standing on the kitchen table was used for grinding sugar bought in large cone-shaped loaves.
When a traveler, tired from riding on horseback over miles of forest trails, stopped at the tavern overnight, he sat before the fireplace in that home-made, splint-bottomed chair. He lighted his pipe with a paper spill taken from the glass spill-jar on the mantel, for matches were not invented until 1834.
At bedtime the tavern keeper filled with embers the long- handled bed warmer standing at the right of the fireplace, lighted a candle from one of the brass candlesticks on the mantel, and escorted the traveler to his room. Then he re- turned to the kitchen to wind the grandfather clock, bank the fire with ashes, and bar the doors against a possible Indian attack.
The Country Store is of a somewhat later period than the Pioneer Kitchen. Here are displayed commodities in use when Rochester was Rochesterville. Most of the articles shown could not be bought today in any store: splint bas- kets made by the Indians and traded for gunpowder or cali- co; children's hand-made, copper-toed boots; chests of tea- dust from China; a carpet bag, a type of hand luggage once so popular in the northern states that northerners traveling
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below the Mason-Dixon line after the Civil War were known as "carpet baggers." That twist of fibre like a knot of coarse gray hair is flax ready for weaving.
In the Weaving Room stands a flax wheel for spinning flax thread to be woven into linen, and a larger wheel for spinning woolen yarn. The wax figure seated before a loom represents a woman weaving rag carpeting.
In the Costume Exhibit large glass cases display the ruffled dresses, pantalettes, and bustles in fashion when Lafayette visited Rochester in 1825. In another case bonnets bloom like flowers in an old-fashioned garden. A quiet little Quaker sunbonnet of gray taffeta is awed by a haughty velvet hat trimmed with ostrich tips, fashioned by a Paris milliner.
Along the shelf of another case marches a procession of little pasteboard people. Leading the march is Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee," who, stolen by the Indians when a child, spent her life among them; Ebenezer "Indian" Allen, Rochester's first white settler and the builder of the first mills; Hamlet Scrantom, another pioneer settler; Nathaniel Rochester, for whom the city was named; and many others.
The models of Allen's mills are so realistic that one ex- pects to see the water wheel begin to turn and the tall figure of Indian Allen himself appear in the doorway. There is the little cabin of Hamlet Scrantom, built where the Powers Block now stands. It is so complete in every detail, from the coonskins hanging on the log walls to the ax in the chop- ping block, that it would not be surprising to see smoke curling from the chimney.
The exhibit of early farming tools tells the story of the pioneer farmer. Cowbell and branding iron speak of the days when there were no fences and cattle were allowed to roam
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through the woods. The flail was the pioneer's first thresh- ing machine. The bee box served as a means of finding honey. Sugar was expensive, and lucky was the man who found a bee tree with its store of wild honey. Taking the little box under his arm the hunter set forth to "line" a a bee tree. He captured a honey-laden wild bee, imprisoned it in the box, and after following the line of its flight for some distance, released it. Straight as a bullet it flew on toward the bee tree. Another bee, another and another, each following the same airway, led the hunter on until he reached their airport, a hollow tree trunk sometimes filled with the harvests of many summers.
That home-made straw-woven beehive was baited with a piece of honeycomb to lure a wild swarm to take up resi- dence in it.
It is noteworthy that most of the tools and utensils of early days were hand-made, proving that the pioneer was a man skilled in many trades.
Second floor: Pioneer Arts and Culture; Nature Hall; Extension Division.
"Man Surveys His Past" is the title of a case which con- tains, in little, the story of man's evolution. Wax figures show, first, a crouching form only a little more human than the ape, a little swifter of foot, a little more skillful of hand, and, like the ape, without the power of speech; then, the Dawn Man, who has learned to speak, knows the use of fire, and makes crude tools; next, the Neanderthal Man, a little higher in the scale, having a religion and a social and family organization, but still living in caves; lastly, the Cro-Magnon Man, who has developed a crude art and reached the highest development of prehistoric humanity.
There are exhibits of minerals of startling beauty, which have a mysterious quality not yet understood by scientists.
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Under a violet light certain dull gray stones glow with a dazzling splendor of color, as if lighted from within.
A meteorite as large as a pumpkin arouses awe at the thought of the deafening thunder of its fall as it blazed, hurtling through the space between the worlds.
Rocks bearing strange grooves and scratches are relics of the centuries when glaciers covered Monroe Country to a depth at least a mile higher than the Pinnacle Hills.
In Nature Hall glass cases hold the very spirit of summer throughout the year. The wild flowers of Monroe County are marvelously imitated in wax in their natural surround- ings of moss and leafmold. Here "grow" the closed gentian, trillium, hepatica, meadow lilies, violets, all made with such skill that even the bees and butterflies might accept them as genuine. The weird blossoms of the Indian pipe or "corpse plant" are like ghost flowers. Snug in his canopied shelter hides jolly Jack-in-the-pulpit. And surely the fairies themselves would be deceived by the waxen mushrooms and hide under their tents. Like evil gnomes the poisonous toadstools lurk among the good mushrooms, looking so innocent and mushroom-like that only an expert can tell them apart.
In the Hall of Birds four huge cases portray the bird life of the four seasons. One has the feeling that at some sudden instant, surprised in the midst of its busy activities, the bird world was caught and held under a magic spell. Birds poise in mid-air, in motionless flight, and only sharp eyes can solve the seeming miracle. Wires, so fine as to be almost invisible, explain the mystery. In the near future these "nature pictures" will be brought to life. The cases will be electrified, and the birds will burst into song.
Nowhere else can a child enter so closely into the world of birds and see them in all their daily business of living,
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unless he might make himself invisible by the old fairy recipe of putting fern seed in his shoes.
Third floor: Archeology and Indian Life.
How thrilling it would be if, while walking in the woods, one suddenly found, in a secret valley undiscovered by white men, an Indian village. Hiding behind the trees, one could creep closer with breathless interest, to see how Indians really live.
Such a village may be found on the third floor of the museum. It is small, as if seen from a hilltop above, and peopled by tiny Indians, who are busy and apparently un- aware that the palefaces have arrived. Several braves are building a wigwam. Another is making arrowheads, and a squaw is pounding corn in a stone mortar.
A closer view of Indian life is shown in the two lodges, real lodges, in which, years ago, real Indians lived. A buffalo skin curtains the sleeping-bunks built against the wall. Deerskins serve as rugs. An Indian woman (made of wax), clothed in a beaded dress of buckskin, kneels before the fireplace; and an Indian brave, tired, perhaps, from a day of hunting, rests on a bench. The firelight gives such an air of coziness to the place that one imagines it might be pleasant, for a time at least, to live in a wigwam.
LAMBERTON CONSERVATORY
Location: Highland Park.
Transportation: South Ave. car line. Hours: Daily, 10-5.
A large variety of flower and foliage plants is on display at the Lamberton Conservatory throughout the year: poin- settias in Christmas season, Easter lilies in the early spring, and chrysanthemums at Thanksgiving.
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In the parching heat of the cactus room grow the weird, nightmarish plants which thrive in deserts. The Old Man cactus, or Aaron's Beard, a gray-whiskered patriarch, holds the center of the room, lurking ill-naturedly behind his thorns. Along the ground writhes the "snake cactus," one of the few varieties of this species of plants that have a showy blossom. Its lovely red and yellow flowers, however, can be seen only at night.
The prickly pear is a coquette, attracting attention by its brightly tinted fruit, but repelling too friendly advances with stinging thorns. The fruit, which is scarcely worth such thorny protection, being mild and rather tasteless, is not the only virtue of this cactus. The myriads of tiny red insects which infest its leaves are gathered by the natives of Mexico to be made into red cochineal dye. The cochineal industry of Mexico has become of less importance since the discovery of coal tar dyes.
The cochineal cactus is a plant of slow growth, producing at the end of each frond only one pad or leaf yearly. All cacti bloom, but the flowers of most varieties are incon- spicuous. The water cactus has saved the lives of many travelers who, wandering lost in the deserts of Lower Cal- ifornia and dying of thirst, have found this vegetable water tank and quenched their thirst with the water which its pulp stores in large quantities. The spineless cactus is also kind to man. Improved by the wizardry of Luther Burbank, it forms a valuable cattle fodder in the arid wastelands of the West.
Among the agaves is that strange variety known as the century plant. Legend says it blooms but once in a century, but this is not strictly true, some plants producing blossoms at the age of 30 years. As soon as the rare flower fades, the plant withers and dies, while a new generation of plants sprouts from its root. The century plant is cultivated on
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the plateau of Mexico. From its fermented juice the natives make a liquor called pulque, and, by distillation, a still more deadly intoxicant called mescal. The sisal hemp of Florida and Central America is a variety of century plant, from the fibres of which binding twine and cordage are made. Many varieties of agaves have beautiful foliage patterned with markings of various shades. Some, mottled in an uncom- fortable resemblance to snakes, are interesting examples of nature's protective camouflage.
The warlike Yucca, bristling with dagger leaves from which it receives its other name of Spanish Bayonet, is a sheep in wolf's clothing, for in reality it is a member of the meek lily family. Its ancestry is revealed in huge clusters of beautiful lily-shaped flowers.
The Crown of Thorns is another desert plant, a native of the Holy Land. These red blossoms are not true flowers, but flowery bracts or leaves of crimson which surround the small and scarcely noticeable flower. In this respect the Crown of Thorns resembles its relative, the poinsettia, the flamboyant "flowers" of which are really colored foliage surrounding the true flower. The euphorbia maculata, a dis- tant cousin of the poinsettia, in spite of its dignified name, leads a wild life in this climate.
From the dry desert atmosphere of the cactus room one enters the moist jungle climate of the tropical room. Here grow the ferns, dainty maidenhairs native to our northern woods, gigantic jungle ferns, and many interesting varieties of mosses. A magnifying glass reveals in these mosses un- suspected beauties. Through the lens, as Alice through the looking glass, one may enter a strange dreamland of en- chanted forests. Silver-gray lichens, the robbers of the vegetable kingdom, spread their tents upon the kindly bark of trees from which they steal their living. The fronds of the staghorn fern branch in the form of deer's antlers; on
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their undersides, as in the case of all ferns, the seeds cling like specks of brown dust. It has been said that children wearing fern seeds in their shoes become invisible and are able to see fairies, but scientists have never been able to prove this !
These are only a few of the many interesting plants at the conservatory. Richard Horsey, park foreman, whose office is in the herbarium back of the conservatory, is most courte- ous in giving information to interested visitors.
The Lamberton Conservatory was built in 1911 as a mem- orial to A. B. Lamberton, former park commissioner and president of the Park Board.
Almost directly across from the conservatory a footpath leads down into the Poets' Garden, where in shady seclusion grow those flowers of which the poets have sung: primroses, daffodils, columbine, violets, anemones, jonquils, trilliums, and many others. A birdbath invites the birds, and stone benches offer hospitality to tired sightseers. Inscribed on these benches are various quotations from Shakespeare. Particularly appropriate to this bird-haunted spot is
Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me, And tune his merrie note Unto the sweet bird's throat.
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PART II
MONROE COUNTY
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION
T HE County of Monroe, formed in 1821 from Genesee and Ontario Counties, was named for James Monroe, fifth president of the United States. Its northern boundary, about 32 miles between the 77º22' and 78° W. meridians, is formed by the shore of Lake Ontario, most easterly of the Great Lakes.
GEOGRAPHY
The 663 square miles of the county support a population of 423,881, about 221/2 percent of which lives outside the city of Rochester. In Monroe's north-center, Rochester straddles the Genesee River, taming it to her will, and holds in her grasp the radiating lines of transportation- railroads, bus lines, and macadamized roads.
Occupying the central part of the Lake Ontario plain, the land rises from the lake towards the south a maximum of 784 feet in almost imperceptible grades. Deposits of sand and clay, remnants of glacial debris, form rounded hills of low relief throughout the county. This relatively flat topo- graphy, in contrast with the rolling terrain farther south, diverted railroads and canals through Monroe County. This fact, coupled with the shipping facilities afforded by the lake, has made Rochester a key commercial city and has
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Monroe County Farm Land-"The Oceanic Roll of the Soil"
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PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
given it a prosperity which is reflected throughout the county.
Lake Ontario modifies the extremes of temperature of Monroe. The water absorbs heat during the day and radi- ates it at night, and in much the same way heat absorbed in the summer is liberated rather late in the fall. The well- drained glacial deposits provide fertile soil. The combina- tion has made the county one of the more important fruit- growing sections of the state.
Irondequoit Valley, in the north-central part of the county, extends from a point 1 mile west of the Genesee River eastward 5 miles to Irondequoit Bay. With an area of 17 square miles, it covers the 31/2-mile-wide strip between the Ridge Road and Lake Ontario. Stream trenching in this region has produced striking valleys and ridges, such as those found in Durand-Eastman Park in Rochester. Prior to the ice age, this valley was the channel of the Genesee River. Its rock bottom is about 500 feet beneath the water surface. The present Rochester canyon became the course of the river when a blockade of glacial debris in the Rush- Mendon section forced the post-glacial Genesee from the Irondequoit Valley into its present path through Rochester.
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