Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-02
THE MONKEY.
How They Are Made Useful in the Land
Of the White Elephant.

II 10 Olc Oi luC CuIlOun innings III
nature that the animals nearest to
man in the order of development are
Of little or no use to him industrially.
There has never been a time when
strong races of men have not compell-
ed their weaker brothers to work for
them. But, barring the Snowman and
the organ grinder, the meanest of men
have not been able to subjugate or
enslave their simian relatives. Al
ancient Arabic proverb accounts for
the freedom Of apes by the fact that
they shrewdly refuse to talk We'll
they know that were they to speak
they would be made to work so they
wisely hold their tongues"
The ~proverbial prudence of the
monkey appears to fail in a measure,
however, in the land of the white ele-
plant. An Austrian resident at the
Court of Siam reports that in that
country the monkey is trained to fish
for crabs with his tail, as comical a
pursuit as can well be imagined, OK
cept, perhaps, for the worthy and in
telligent ape engaged in it, who some
times gets a bite" from a monster
crab that he is totally unable to land,
and falls a victim to the superior
weight of his cancer ferox, who drags
him into the water, browns, and final
ly deYours him. The Siamese ape is
also stated to be in great request
among native merchants as a
cashier in their contingencies.
Vast quantities of base coin obtain
circulation in Siam, and the faculty of
discrimination between good money
and bad would appear to be possessed
by these gifted monkeys in such an
extraordinary degree of development
that no mere human being, however
carefully trained, can compete with
them. The cashier ape meditatively
puts into his 'mouth each coin pre-
sented to him in business payments,
and tests it with grave ~deliberation.
Fit be counterfeit he sets it down on
the counter before him with a solemn
grimace Of %displeasure. His method
of testing is regarded in commercial
circles as infallible and, as a matter
of fact, his decision is uniformly ac-
cepted by all parties interested in the
transaction. But, though a true and
invaluable servant to his own particu-
lar master, it seems hat his moral
character is not altogether irreproaeh-
able. His deplorable passion for
fruit renders him the terror of Siam
csc market gardeners, who find brute
force inadequate to restrain him from
visiting their orchards, and therefore
have recourse to divers and sundry
~stratagems, one of which is reported
to be as successful as il is certainly
ingenious. A specially active and
enterprising ape is captured and
carefully sewed up in the
skin of a tiger cat. He is then turned
loose in the orchard of his predilec-
ton, and straightway chambers, as well
as he may, incumbered by an unfa-
miliar garment, into the branches of a
fruit tree among his unclothed fellows.
Scarcely do these latter set eyes upon
him, when a dreadful panic strikes
them, and they scramble away with
piercing scre9ches and agonized chat
terings. Never more DO they return
to an orchard which they believe to be
infested by the deadliest enemy of
their race. The startling Intelligence
is rapidly disseminated throughout the
monkey society of the neighborhood
and the willy gardner enjoys an abso.
Lutte immunity from depreciation for.
ever afterward, for the very thought
of a tiger cat appals the simian soul,
and doubtless tho tale of the awful
apparition in Ting-tse's orchard is
handed down in quadrumanous FAM
lies from generation TO generation.