Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-15
LIKE A HUMAN BEING.

Poor Jack Semester had been dead a
day. From going in to look at him,
with his hands folded on his breast, af-
ter the plaintive manner of the dead, we
sat down in the one other room of the
cabin and began to talk of similar scenes
and similar experiences. For my own
part felt bad, for 1 had set the blast
which knocked poor Jack out, and,
though l was not to blame any more
than babe, I wished some other hand
than mine had been the innocent instru-
ment of his undoing.
There were Whistling Bill, Harry
Handsome, Major Tokay and myself.
Each man told his pathetic story of some
sad happening in the mines.
"Gentlemen," said the major, "the
dead man in there was my friend. We
all saw him pass over the river, and we
all took his last message to his old
mother back in the states. The man of
us who gets there first delivers it. But
talking of sad deaths, hope do not
profane poor Jacks dumb clay when l
assert that the saddest death ever wit
messed was that of baboon."
ga baboonr' exclaimed everybody to-
gether.
eyes," answered the major, can At
rican baboon."
Major Tokay was the Oldest man
among us. He was an Englishlnan of
the right sort. He had been an officer
in the British army. When our war
broke out in 1861 he came across the
water, joined a New York regiment, and
fought his way up from the ranks to the
grade and title by which we knew him.
He had been all over the world several
times, and was a generous and tender
hearted man. He was as brave as any
Englishman, and all English blood is
brave.
"Sam Simpson and Invent to Zanzibar
in $50. We crossed over to Bogomoyo
and struck out for the interior, with the
intention of shooting big game prom
would bring her home lions hide for a
rug for her room. So we were after no
less spoil than the king of beasts. Poor
Sam was drowned in crossing one of
those turbulent streams of which the
Dark Continent is full. This happened
hundred weary miles from anywhere, in
the interior, among the niggers. | bur-
led Sam under spreading palm, rolled
the largest stone 1 could find onto his
grave. and, fashioning a kind of chisel
out of a heavy knife I carried, carved a
rude inscription upon it. Sometimes
God listens to sinner, SO did the best
could toward sending up prayer for
poor Sans soul.
"LOoking up saw q native woman.
She had a baby baboon in her hands.
VIII you believe it? There was some
thing in the eye of that baboon that
touched my heart Now, don't think
Pm fool. He looked like Sam. The
woman held him out to me, as if to say
that could have him if wanted him.
/ stretched out my hands, and the little
baby baboon sprang into them as if he
wished to belong to me. The first thing
he did was to put his hairy arms around
my neck and lay his fuzzy head against
my cheek. Gentlemen, have been af-
fected in my time, but never before nor
since as I was then. The more l wept
the tighter the creature clung
"I got out of that country as soon as
could, taking the baboon with me. The
lion whose hide l was to take back to
Tillie Simpson is still wearing it, and
rubbing off the hair among the under
growth in the jungles, for gave up
lion hunting, and arrived at Bogomoyo
after many days of wearing marching.
Gentlemen, many of you have seen lone
ly times on these mountain sides, and
you can imagine how began to love
that baboon, the only living thing
around me except the snakes and wild
beasts. When we slept he cnrled up
against my breast, and in the morning
he awakened me by his antics--a way of
dumping up and down he had-and by
tapping my cheeks with his little hands,
as Like Q child's as any you ever saw.
When got back to Zanzibar with my
baboon, but no Sam, man knew
said to me:
"'What have you done with your
snassY
HThs baboon was afraid of this man.
He wound his little arms around my
neck tight, and laid his hairy head
against my cheek. For all could do l
couldn't keep the tears back, so said:
"sThis is all the mate | have. shall
call him Sam, after my dead friend, who
is lying under spreading palm lou
miles inland among the niggers.'
''The man laughed, as if l were de-
grading poor Sam by naming baboon
after him, but had no such thought. l
loved Sam, and the way this creature
had come to me at his very grave, as if
his spirit were in its little body and was
trying to speak, made me think it was
right. l think so yet, after a lapse Of
more than twenty years.
GAS I neared England Sam, the ba-
boon, ,>clung to me closer still. A good
many people on shipboard would have
Nked to pet him, but he wouldn't have
it. He would come to nobody but me.
and as the northern breezes began to
strike him he clung closer than ever and
shivered with the cold. ] showed him
to Tillie Simpson in her English home
and told her all. But she didn't like the
idea of my calling the baboon by her
brothers name That made no differ