THE "EDUCATIVE ZOO."

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 39, 10 December 1920, Page 12

THE "EDUCATIVE ZOO."

—Our Dumb Animals.

What do they learn, the children, I11 front of the grim-haived eages, Where the frowsy lion sulks, Or the quivering tiger rages? In the elephants' spacious liouse, Where the tetliered beasts stand sway-if-g» Taught by an iron bar The beauty of obeying ; Or where a sluggish pool The polar king allures;Or where in the grizzlies' pit - The wood's lord mopes, and endures? Or at the monkeys' cage, Where the wee beasts "act" before them, Through the brief span they may live, Afar from the land that bore them? Wherever a helpless life Is barred from the joys God gave it# By human hardness or greed That sought it to enslave it, How can the children learn Aught that shall raise them nearer to the great Undying Fire That warms the heart of the world, That gave its meed of glaclness To each created thing? Is it well to learn from their sadnessV^ Father of Infinite Love, Creator of all being, Lord God of the Wordless Ones, Teach us to speak for their freeing.