I was glad the keepers were there, for I did not
have on my seafaring clothes, and I was what is
called a mark for the creatures of prey that
prowled up and down. At times, between keepers,
these males looked at me sharply, hungrily, gutter-
wolves that they were, and I was afraid of their
hands, of their naked hands, as one may be afraid
of the paws of a gorilla. They reminded me of
gorillas. Their bodies were small, ill-shaped, and
squat. There were no swelling muscles, no abun
dant thews and wide-spreading shoulders. They
exhibked, rather, an elemental economy of nature,
such as the cave-men must have exhibited. But
there was strength in those meagre bodies, the
ferocious, primordial strength to clutch and gripe
and tear and rend. When they spring upon their
human prey they are known even to bend the victim
backward and double its body till the back is
broken. They possess neither conscience nor
sentiment, and they will kill for a half-sovereign,
without fear or favor, if they are given but half a
chance. They are a new species, a breed of city
savages. The streets and houses, alleys and courts,
are their hunting grounds. As valley and moun
tain are to the natural savage, street and building
are valley and mountain to them. The slum is
their jungle, and they live and prey in the jungle.

The dear soft people of the golden theatres and

[[285]]

p284 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p285w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p286

v?