The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-06-29
THE MONKEY LANGUAGE.
r-of.ssor Gamers Discovery Sets Hu-
moyist to Thinking and Guessing.

--.,.ssor Gamers Discovery Sets n Hu-
noyist to Thinking and Guessing.
No nan-not even a Macaulay, DR..
1obnson or q Chauncey Depew-may longer
Dnonono1ize speech. Professor Garner has
discovered that monkeys have language.
Trhn monograph. which preserves the
voice of Gladstone and the song OF Pattl,
has also recorded the words OF the Capu-
chin monkey and the Barbary ape. In the
Madison Square garden recently there were
n,esented two singular spectacles: In one
= ,rt Of the building two human beings be-
iobored each other with boxing gloves
lille in another a monkey spoke TO the
Nineteenth Century club through pho
nog-apb. The exhibition of muscle and
AGILITY was given by the human beings. 1t
vyas the monkey that did the thinking
Ifmonkeys have language is ii not prob
able that different nationalities and tribes
of monkeys have different languages? Il
Z, likely that a monkey from Dabomey
wogld be able TO understand the lingo"
NJ n monkey from Timbuctoo? All that
tho monkey from TimbuctOO said would
be Greek 10 the monkey from Dahomey
On the other hand, the discourse OF the
monkey from Dahomey would be no more
than Chinese TO the monkey from Timbuc-
too.
At what dim time on the banks Of the
Nile or in the garden Of Timbuctoo or on
tbeslopes Of Xilima-N jaro, did the monkey
language beging Was there ever any tree
sc Babel down which the monkeys trooped
in confusion?
Is there any simian Sanscrit from which
are derived the multitude of monkey Ian
\ ouagesg Has any of the various simian
tongues been enriched by the infusion Of
foreign monkey words? Have the simian
languages had life and growth and
phonetic change? Does the speech of the
monkeys whose pictures are in the temples
Of Egypt resemble the speech OF contem-
porary monkeys on the Congo, as Latin
resembles the modern Romance Ian
Ruages? Are there any dead monkey Ian
guages?
Is rude dialect spoken in the remote
backwoods districts-the monkey Oshkosh
or the monkey Kalamazoo-and purer
speech in the monkey centers Of popula-
tiou2 Do the monkeys on the Congo speak
the more polished and elegant language
the Partisan and Tuscan Of the simian
speech-while the monkey in the back
woods speaks patois?
Perhaps the more simple monkey Ian
guages are monosyllabic, like Chinese, and
the more highly developed are polysylla-
bic. like English. 1t is possible that some
of the more complex simian languages
have eight OF ten lenses, including the
second pluperfect. 1t may be that the
young monkeys parse and coniugate while
pursuing some complicated monkey Ian
guage for mental drill
Can people learn the monkey languages
and thus draw nearer 70 their kin across
the sea? we believe that they can. Pro
fesscr Garner already speaks the Capuchin
y~nIonkey language with facility, though
his vocabulary is not large. And it must
be a pleasant surprise to a Central Park
monkey 10 find solitary citizen Of the
great republic learned enough TO converse
with him.
Some day not few cultivated and re-
fined people will know some simian Ian
guage aud be able 20 talk with monkeys
In that happy day people can invite an ape
50 breakfast, ascertain his point Of view,
his philosophy Of life, and DISCUSS with
him his social, political and aesthetic
theories.-L. II. Taper n New York
Journal