The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-29
CARRIERS MONKEYS AGAIN.

sAAAS w 10y Il bOOS 1AOhESy AAAA'
From the London Daily Ne,os.
Every one has heard OF Mr.. Garner, an
American student, who is starting for trop-
icsl Africa to study the speech of monkeys.
Mr.. Garner is taking various electrical ma
chimes for dealing death and destruction
among the doomed foe, IL the monkeys re-
sent the visit Of a school inspector. Mean
while Mr.. Garner has published a work on
The Speech Of Monkeys" (Heinemann), in
which the grammar suggests that he has
not absolutely mastered the subtleties OF his
native tongue. He speaks of a spaniel
which 'died at the hands of q bulldog" at
the teeth rather, we presume. The book
does not add very much to what we already
know, from bis magazine articles, OF Mr..
Garner's very curious experiments. AS
child be believed that all animals have their
own kind of speech, and no doubt most ami
mails have. Speech is a sign made by sound,
and, with the exception of fish, few animals
fail to make signs by sound and to under
stand them when made. We ourselves can
distinguish between the satisfied purr and
the beseeching new, between the bark OF
Joy, the yelp Of pain, the howl of impotence
and ennui, between the shrek Of the terri
fied and the song OF tho happy blackbird.
All these are vocal signs Of various emo
lions, and 80 far are speech. Probably
animals understand the notifications of
their own speech better than we do. 1t may
easily be argued that human language Is
only q vastly differentiated and expanded
sdision Of animal cries-that the differences
is not one OF kind, but OF degree. This wa
take IL 20 be Mr.. Gamers theory; but We
are not certain that his study Of the Ian
guage OF monkeys CARRIES our knowledge
to a more advanced point, or that monkeys
talk more ardculstely and better than cats
or dogs. The natives OF South Africa be-
lieye that the balloons have 9 language.
Mr.. Gamers monkeys have not, apparently,
made great progress In speaking.
Mr.. Garner caught a female monkeys
notes in photograph and let them OFF in
the cage of a male monkey. He looked for
his mate in the horn of the machine; but has
Mr. Garner tried the experiment on a dog
or a cate They also, we think. will show the
same amount Of curiosity. Mr.. Garner
thought he had found out the monkey word
for milk, but then he discovered that 10 en-
braced food, and probably everything desir-
able Now purr means milk, fish the
pleasure of being stroked, In feline and wa
are not sure that the monkey word is not as
vague as the purr. A monkey was fright
ened when Mr.. Garner uttered the monkey
alarm note; but blackbirds would be
frightened If he uttered the blackbird note
of alarm. If a man boots like an owl on
one side of Loeb Awe, where it is narrow,
owls will reply from the opposite side. No
doubt they mean something by the boot,
and understand each other. This is hardly
more remote from speech than is monkey
jabber. But Mr.. Garner knows a sound
which, II uttered in a monkeys hearing,
makes him bring his water pan. He thinks
that faint infections in the sound differen-
tate meat and drink. This is very in
terestlng if it can be established as a
fact. If monkeys can count three,
many birds can do as much: they
seem to know the number Of their eggs.
Monkeys have their favorite colors 50 have
trout, and their fashions change. Now
they like Zulu and now a Heekham Peck
ham-bright object, resembling nothing In
nature. The flies are liked as food, but so
are the various colored candles with which
Mr.. Garner tried the apes. Iu monkeys
the sense of personal property is connected
with the mouth. When once a monkey
has anything in his mouth. no other mon
key will put his fingers into that re-
ceptacle. But dogs and cats have a
sense Of real property, and if
stranger comes into their garden they are
up In arms. The lower animals are not so-
cialistic, and you may see big trout drive
little one away from q drift where flies
are ceming down. We are not at all sur
prised TO hear that old world monkeys are
more stupid and more tacturn than the
monkeys Of the new world. This was TO
Monkeys shave at least the raw material
out of which is [stcl made the most exalted
attributes of MAI" Perhaps Mr. Garner
will discover that the grammar Of old
world monkeys, when they do speak, Is
more correct than that Of the sImians in
America.
Mr.. Garner does not believe that monk
eys cries 'developed far above mere series
OF grunts and groaus," and IN that case we
fail to see that monkeys talk better than
dogs. He did, however, discover a monkey
of one species initiating the sound for food
used by monkeys of another species. He
improved on it very much. Theophile Gau-
tier tells a still more remarkable story of
dog. Having seen a dancing dog, 1t prac-
tised for months in a room by itself, and
when perfect collected all the local dogs
and danced before them, A monkey
called Dago made remarks as MIR.
Garner believes about the weather,
and 1t even seems that he attr1b-
uted pain in his little person to
the inclemency Of the season. Mr.. Garner's
book is very interesting, from bis kind
sympathy with his friends and his obserVa-
ton of their ways. II can hardly be hoped
that he will ever be able to publish gram
mar and lexicon Of slmian, 70 detect the re-
ligious ideas of the animals, or even to get
one of them elected b. congress. We can
conceive no more popular preacher than
cOnVerLeu MONKEY "Ou1A bo3 Uubs Ou Luo
other hand, such advances in culture would
be sore shock to Max Muller's theory of
language as a barrier between man and
beast. II may be observed that a monkeys
intelligence is quite on par with that OF
many men, but his speech Is on a lower
stratum Of development. This looks as II
there were no fixed ratio of connection be-
tween speech and thought A gentleman
OF Sumatra had an orang as a domestic
servant We are certain that 1t never
packed bis tooth brush in his sponge bag.
Monkeys. II they arc wise, will beware Of
evolving TOO rapidly. Metaphysics and
political economy may be on them literally
before they can say Jack Robinson
Before basing auy hopes or fears for the
future OF monkeys on their speech, We wish
20 be certain that they are already more
advanced orators than cats aud dogs. who
undenstand what 10 said 10 them quite a.
well as monkoya