Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1884 — Monkeys and Their Antics. [ARTICLE]

Monkeys and Their Antics.

the inferiority of my servants to myself, .said would become angry at any one of them vsJhen I reprimanded him, his anger being, modulated according to .my tone'. He co-operated in’ all my gestures when I aeted as if I were, beating a man or a dog; but if it were another monkey that was threatened, he took its side.

The. feeling of compassion is not strange toYnonkeys. They will defend, and protect individuals, sometimes offering their own bodies as a shield. They extend their pity to animals of other species. The rhesus became furious wheil he saw the ferret, in the course of his training lessons, biting rats, and, taking him by the tail, bit him to Bave the rat. The rhesus slept at first perched on the bars of his cage, hut soon learned to take easier positions and cover himself with a quilt. He often had lively dreams. I could see him grin, and utter low but distinct sounds of comfort, of desire and sometimes of fright. His obedience was complete, except as regarded food. If I. left any delicacy on the table, he would never touch it when I was looking on, but, after my baclc was turned, nothing of it could be found. Putting' a stuffed snake skin beside any coveted object, however, always secured its protection. The rhesus preferred roast fowl and rbasft mutton to all other meats, and also liked eggs, raw or cooked. His weakness for eggs once cost me a considerable sum, which I had to pay a neighbor for 150 eggs of high-bred fowls which my pet had destroyed. He liked to vary liis food. He ate all kinds of seeds, preferred asparagus among vegetables, and was fond of fruit. He would take his milk or drink from a glass like a person, and so far imitated depraved humanity as to smoke and get drunk when he got the chance. The feeling of the right of property is common to all the monkeys, I gave a red quilt to a Java macacus and a blue one to another macacus. Each one was jealous of his own garment, and the least infringement by one on the property rights of the other was followed by a battle. Perty says that monkeys can untie ropes, but can not tie them. Is this a mark of inferiority? Monkeys, like other animals, have for most of their actions a determined object. My rliesus was obliged, to get honey, to open the closet and to untie a rope. He did both. But why should he shut tjie door or tie tlie rope again ? Do we not have to teach children and boors to shut doors ?

Monkeys can estimate weights. My rhesus could pick out solid eggs from empty shells and those filled with iron fillings, lead, sawdust, and sand. It can not be denied that monkeys have some, but a weak notion of numbers, as has been proven by many interesting experiments. Monkeys have southing of a language among themselves that is easily understood by individuals of the same species. Members of the same species, if not too remote, can after a time learn to understand each other. But the anecdotes about the propensity oi monkeys to imitate man are much exaggerated. They have a physical structure like his, and mental qualities in some respects not wholly dissimilar from his, and naturally make gestures like those of men, and that is the most of truth there is in those stories.—Popular Science Mouthy*