The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-08-19
Peculiarities Of MOnkeys--.Their Wise
Looks and Foolish Ways.

A writer in the London Telegraph,
who has been contemplating the mon
| keys in the Zoo, records the follow
/ ing impressions of their nature and
/ habits: Though a singular community
of fur obtains ameng them, yet by
actual habits some seem solitary enough.
! That little baboon there, except when
passers-by stop to bestow perfunctory
attention to its hair, appears to be al
ways alone; and how it Thinks In
Madras its relatives are called the wise
Ones and if contemplation induces wis
dom, they should be very wise indeed.
But near him, puzzling over cork, sits
monk with a look of distress upon
its face that would befit Jesuit father
in Paris to-day. Its hair seems blanehed
with extreme old age, and on its crown
rests a small black skull-cap, to keep,
one would suppose, the cold from its
bald head. But the creature is a hoax
altogether, joke of old Dame Nature.
in some idle moment, for that wiZened
old graybeard is quite young, and that
aspect of weary thought was in It's eyes
and the skull-cap was on its head when
it was born. Yet in the Brazils, ifmon-
Director by this time, for his cOunte-
nance invites confidence, while his rev.
erend appearance almost justiiies it.
But turn for a moment to this family of
Mona monkeys, two young ones and a
senior, and for time nothing can be
more becoming than their conduct. The
young ones rOmp, while the old one.
discountenancing such frivolity, sits Sc
verely on a perch, turning every now
and then to LOOK out wistfully over the
spectators heads at the bright sun
shining out of doors. But on a sudden
a change comes over the scene. A Young
one groveling under straw forgetS that
it has left its tail protruding, and
the temptation is greater than the
old one can resist. In a twink
ling the challenge to a romp is ac-
cepted; and loi while the senior makes
fool of himself among the straw with
one of the children, the other child is
on his perch looking just as grave as he
did and gazing at intervals in the same
wistful way out into the open air. The
old monkey, lately so solemn, so re-
spectacle, so austere, has suddenly
resolved itself into an irresponsible fool,
committing itself to every possible alb
surdity, and subjected to the irreverent
liberties of its juniors. Those who do
not respect themselves cannot, of course.
look for respect from others; but, from
the elder monkeys attitude when we
first approached it, such a complete
abandonment to buffOOnery was GER
tainly not to be expected. The Diana
monkey next door has no temptations
to romp, for it has no comrades, but
here again the same deplOrable disre-
gard of appearances occurs. Her cage
is lined with straw and in the center of
the straw she sits, as composed as a
mummy and with a face like an old
MuSsulman khitmutgar. Surely, the
crack of doom itself could not disturb
such serene eqUanimity The thought,
however, is hardly past before the mon
KEY, with a velocity that suggests an
explosion from below springs to the
roof, carrying with it as much of its bed
as its hand can hold and the next in
slant is down again and spinning round
and round on the bare floor in pursuit /
of its own tail, while the straw comes
struggling down upon it from the perch /
above. The creature has suddenly. to
all appearance, become 4 hopeless IDIOT /
1t is inst the same in the next cage, and /.
the next, and the next, intervals of pro-
found contemplation and admirable
gravity alternating with fits of irrele- /.
want frivolity. The silky marmozet |
stands upon its hind legs and holds out |
its tiny paws in SupplicatiOn and cries |.
continuously wee, shrill cry that is
SURPRISING in its tone of utter desola-
tion-while the long, soft locks hang
down on each side of the forlorn little |
face and the poor thing looks as if en-
treating for sudden death as o relief /
from its present misery. Does it think /.
we are Brazilian savages, armed with |.
blow pipes and poison-tipped arrows,
that the creature bewails itself so bitter 1
", or does it mistake us for anacondas? |
Not a bit of it. The marmOZet only /
wants a cherry, and if you give it one.
all that piteous affection of grief will be /
abandoned at once, and with a merry /
little chirrup it will fall to at its meal |
Its neighbor, the squirrel-mOnkey- |
more like a lizard than a monkey in its |
deliberate movements and sudden ac-
tivities makes the same pretense of .
woe, but INDUCES itself even further in
the luxury of fictitious sorrow. For
when the dinner is brought in-slices .
of orange and apple and cherries, with
fragments of carrots and other vegeta-
bles-the squirrel-monkey creeps down
sadly and approaching the tempting
heap round which the chattering mar
mozets are already sitting, selects in the
Id; oro,,, buroi1itIv Of itc ot4iio+iOr n mis-,
cradle shred of cabbage-leaf, with which
it mournfully retires to:a distant corner.
But this exquisite affectatiOn of asceti-
cism is only of brief duration, as the
marmozets seem to know, for they are
tasting everything in turn and gobbling
up little of each as fast as they can,
and sure enough here comes the squir-
back again with the cab
bage-leaf still carefully held in its hand.
1t replaces it pensively on the heap
and while the marmOZets shrink back
deferentially from the viands, deliber-
ately spreads out the whole of the meal
for leisurely inspection and then sorts
inc out at least One-half for itself. sits
upon its selections till they are finished.
1t is these extraordinary alterations
of conduct and demeanOr that make
monkeys metaphysics. There is 10 ar
guing from probabilities with them or
concluding from premises. 1t is ALWAYS
the unforeseen that occurs. 1t is diff
cult enough to catch a monkeys eye,
but to catch one of Its ideas is impossi-
BILE. Neither in look nor in mind will
it positively confront man, but just as
it lets its eye pass over his, yet never
rest upon it full, so its . mind" glances
to one side or the other of the human