Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • 53

temno Jwi Features Background and Opinion Editorials Amusements Books lively Arts SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1968 1 11 HaM You will recall that during a recent episode we posed the question can Casey, a shy, unassuming 500-pound gorilla from the mining town of St. Paul, find happiness as the mate of a more sophisticated and knowing counterpart in Omaha? The matchmakers at Omaha's Henry Doorley Zoo and those at St. Paul's Komo Park Zoo envisioned that out of the meeting of Casey and two willing female gorillas might come the pitter patter of little hands and feet. It seemed a natural. The Omaha Zoo had the two lady gorillas, but the only male ape there was still too young to know much about the birds and bees.

Though St. Paul's Casey was a bit overweight, it was felt he was probably proper husband material. There was one unforeseen hitch. Casey had led the life of a secluded bachelor all his life. He hadn't the slightest notion what a female gorilla was, didn't know what to do with one, and soon showed upon arrival in Omaha that he was less than ecstatic about the hole idea.

What went through Casey's mind when he was confronted by two grinning females, Benoit and her girlfriend, Bri-gitte, can only be surmised. He acted like anything but a sailor who has been at seas for months. In fact, Casey pounded his chest as if to frighten them off. That might have worked with humans, but the gorilla gals found it challenging They replied by pulling Casey's hair, biting his toes, and chasing him around the zoo grotto. For his part, Casey's expression showed he was certain he'd been set down in a nest of ding-a-lings.

The two females set out to educate the backward buu. Dr. Warren Thomas, director of the Omaha Zoo," said Casey became the astounded victim of "sneak attacks" from the two, particularly Benoit, who is more or less a simian sexpot. "She's aggressive and pushy," Dr. Thomas said.

"She knew what she wanted, but Casey didn't. She pursued him for three days, allowing him little food or sleep. It was a rather comical sight 114 pounds of Benoit against a 500-pound Casey." From time to time, Casey bestowed beseeching glances upon his keepers, but there was no escape. No doubt he thought longingly of his own quiet cage in St. Paul and wondered what cruel trick of fate had put him in with the two amorous loonies.

Once Casey tried to lose Benoit in a jungle gym exercise rig. But it was no use. She panted right along behind him. Finally Casey was so tuckered out he had no resistance left, and Benoit moved in to become better acquainted. Now, Dr.

Thomas said, the romance is blossoming. "Casey is brighter than I gave him credit for, and the females are more resourceful than I had imagined," he said. Despite everything, Dr. Thomas said it will be some time before it can be determined if Casey and Benoit are of parental caliber. He noted the first baby gorilla born in captivity a 1956 occur- rence took one-and-a-half years in the1 programming.

However, the way Casey is catching on, that record may be in jeopardy, Dr. Thomas added. The only problem, as zoo officials see it, will come when Casey has to return to his own zoo. They wonder: "How ya gonna keep Casey back in St Paul after he's seen Benoit?" Photoi By Bill McConnell page, walks under an ominous overhang leading to a large opening of another of the Horse Thief Caves. There is no sign of human life; no tracks of man or littef in this world" section of the Wapsipini-con River.

John Spies of Dixon, shown in the photos on this legend (f 5U? am fS. A By BILL WCNDRAM Managing Editor, Features The old, wide-spaced wooden flooring of High Rock Bridge creaked under the weight of the farmer's pickup truck. "They're over there someplace," motioned John Spies, braking the truck, "i can't see anything, but I don't see how we could reach them if we could." He was talking of Horse Thief Cave a legend that has been an allure for years. Supposedly, a series of caves crouched along the Wapsipinicon River north of Dixon. In the 1840s, through the Civil War years," the caves were said to be the hideout of horse thieves, who preyed upon animals in the fenceless pastures of Scott and Cedar County pioneers.

In 1857, the Democrat newspaper noted in a brief story: "Farmers had best lock their horses in the stables these days, for a band of horse thieves are said to be secreting themselves in the caves along the Wapsi. They are a dastardly lot." In Iowden, Iowa cemetery, two horse thieves dragged from the caves one day in 1861 and hanged from a tall hicko- THE REV. JOHN DEINES, pastor of Davenport's Zion Lutheran Church, was in his study preparing his Sunday sermon on the morning that the recent earth tremor shook the building. The pastor's sermon topic was "Do You Know What Time It Is?" For a moment, he really thought he might be a day too late. A ry are buried.

The legend of Horse Thief Caves was certainly there, but what of the caves today? They seemed elusive. A visit to the area last spring found the Wapsi too high over its banks to consider exploring the area where the caves were alleged to be. Another call last summer met with disappointment. The tangle of hemlock and wild grape and head-high weeds made any exploration impossible. Besides, a farmer had warned the area was infested with rattlesnakes.

But one bright afternoon last week, (Continued on Page 4-D) Cliffs, lichen covered; pock-marked with crevasses in which wild fern and other plant life struggle for life. Here is an entrance to one of the Horse Thief Caves in Scott County, northwest of Dixon. The caves can usually be reached only at certain times of the year. The Wapsi River Fills the caves when the water is hish. CO 5 LI i.

i 1. s- History Passed This Hay ARE YOU A SENIOR citizen with time on your hands? A housewife who can spare a few hours a day? A young person who would like to do something constructive? If so, Davenport's Fairniount School desperately needs volunteers who can donate a couple of hours, or a day, helping ith pre-school handicapped children. There's no real work involved, and just about the only qualification is the desire to help out and be in the room with the children at all times. Those in charge will explain your duties when you arrive at the school. What better investment of lime could anyone make? Lack of volunteers currently is posing serious problems.

If you can help, call Mrs. Albert Hass, 322-8829, or Mrs. Vivian Carlson, the pre-school director, at the school, 64833. A 1 KNOW OF TWO area moms who thought her kids were creating the recent earth tremor in the QuadCities. One, feeling the whole house shake, yelled downstairs to her offspring, "Whatever you're doing, stop it:" I think it would have been appropriate if there'd been a thunderclap and a voice from afar booming, "Who, me, lady?" A tiny hole opens into an eerie room in one of the Horse Thief Caves.

You tan crawl a considerable distance in this cave before it abruptly ends in a tumble of rocks, probably caused by a landslide long ago- A t4.