Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1916 — Park Baboon Perks Up When He Gets Cigarettes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Park Baboon Perks Up When He Gets Cigarettes

NEW YORK. —The doldrums of Leander, a dog-faced baboon of the Central park menagerie, went up in smoke the other day. Leander is back at his old cigarette habits. “Bill” Snyder, head keeper of the menagerie,

not only assumes full responsibility for the primate’s lapse from Puritan principle, but shamelessly says he will connive in his pet’s pleasurable peccadillo to the extent of laying in a gererous supply of tobacco for him. Indeed, Snyder is on the verge of asking the park department for an appropriation to buy cigarettes for the menagerie denizens, his theory being that the habit will spread at least through the primate house. The head keeper says, however,

that he allowed Leander to resume smoking only after he had become convinced that such an exception to park policies was necessary to save the baboon’s life. . Leander was donated to the park department by a woman who purchased him as a “theatrical attraction.” The primate did not hail his commitment to a cage with any noticeable degree of hilarity. On the contrary, he seemed to grow moody. As the days went by Snyder noticed that he appeared to be wasting away. He would lie all day curled up in a corner of his cage and refuse to be comforted His despondency assumed such a serious turn that Snyder decided to call in the erstwhile owner for advice. She took one look at Leander and prescribed cigarettes. “He smoked them regularly when he was on the stage, the woman explained. “He always got that way when he ran out of them.’’