The Historic Grizzly

[brotherbear]

Continued...
Anxious to show off his captured animals, Adams opened a live museum on Clay Street in San Francisco. He proved to be a natural showman and his sizeable menagerie of wild birds and animals began to draw large audiences nightly. Theodore Hittell, a young reporter for the Daily Evening Edition in San Francisco, wrote: 

Descending the stairway, I found a most remarkable spectacle. The basement was a large one but with a low ceiling, and dark, dingy in appearance. In the middle, chained to the floor, were two large grizzly bears, named Ben Franklin and Lady Washington. They paced restlessly in circles. Not far off were several other younger grizzlies and black bears also chained. Near the front of the room was an open stall in which were haltered several mature elks. Further back were cages with lions and several other California animals. At the rear, in a very large iron cage, was the monster grizzly, Samson. He was an immense creature weighing some three-quarters of a ton, and from his look and actions, as well as the care taken to rail him from the spectators, it was evidenced that he should not be approached too closely. Reply