The record-union., 1895-05-06
SPENDTHRIFT MONKEY.
Having Got the Doubloons He Pro
ceeded to SQuander Them.

Having Got the DoublOonS He Pro-
ceeded to Squander Them.
"There is the spice of the devil in a
monkey"
The old sailor took large plug of very
black tobacco from his breeches pocke t
and offered it to q Washington Star re-
porter. The courtesy being declined he
cut off chunk of it with his jack-knife
and slowed the ''chew' away in his
cheek.
'I was mate on board the bark An
ME, trading between New York and
Pernambuco," he said. ut was in 1886
or 1SS7-I disremembe ber which. All hands
were in first-rate spirits, for we had Just
made profitable voyage, and the crew
was to get share of the profits. But off
the coast of the Brazils-we had got al
most into port-something occurred that
seemed likely to reduce tue gains of the
trip.
1.-THE Captain had a pet monkey, of
which he was very found. He had
tainly did possess remarkable intelli-
gence. 1t had the freedom of the ship,
and l chanced to be the victim of two or
three of its pranks, which caused me
good deal of bother, but only made the
Captain laugh. One day, however, the
Captain went to bis cabin to get glass
OF grog, and-so ne told me afterward-he
was just lifting his glass to his lips when
what should he see but Jocko skipping
out through the open door with some
thing in his hand. 1t didn't take him
second to discover that the monkey was
walking away with bag of 500 doub-
looms. The skipper always was an alb
sent-minded man, and he had left the
key in the lock of the strong box in
which he kept his gold.
He jumped for Jocko, but the monkey
yx-oE TO- ipLr for clx
the companion ladder and was on deck
before the Captain could get there. The
beast, with mischief in his eye, lost no
time in climbing up the mainmast, and
presently was perched comfortably on
the main truck. To follow him was
hopeless, and the Captain just stood and
looked at him. waiting to see what would
happen. Now all of this time I was down
below, but l got that part of the story
from the second mate who witnessed the
performance.
There was Jocko sitting way up aloft,
! with the bag of doubloons in his fist.
while the skipper walked up and down
and swore like trooper. He ordered
one OF the men aloft. but countermanded
1t right away, thinking 1t would be more
prudent to coax the beast. He called him
pet names and promised him all sorts of
things he was fond of if he would only
come down. But ocko paid no attention.
He had got the fastening of the bag un-
pdone by this time, and out of it he took
one of the gold pieces. After looking az
it for a moment he SHE'D it overheard.
The Captain groaned. There was Sl7
gone.
"Weli, Jocko didn't seem to be in any
hurry. He took another gold piece out
of the bag, and. after examining it crit
ically as if TO discover the date on it, he
threw it into the sea. The Captain was
frantic. The monkey took another and
another of the doubloons and threw them
overheard. It was evident that when he
emptied the sack he might come down,
but not before.
eft was just at that moment that / came
on deck 1t took me a few seconds to
realize what was going on. My first inn
preston was that the Captain was on the
point of having a fit. He pointed to
Jocko, and l saw the beast throw some-
thing that had yellow gleam as it fell
into the sea. Suddenly realizing the sit
uation, said 'I'll fix that for you, Cap
tain.' Then. picking up marlinspike, l
aimed carefully and shot it aloft at Jocko.
81 did not care whether l hit him or
| not. My best hope was to frighten him.