The Forrest City times., 1896-06-26

NAO7S anu tiCh dDOuJ SU 1 bought large butterfly net with a long handle, and he never got the hang | of that. When 1 had discovered this iu- vention l was comparatively happy, but l waited with dread for the time when Jacko should escape after dark. and should be compelled to hunt for the brute through the watches of the night on the peril of losing the regard of the Tremaine family. Jacko's nomadic hab- its were, l may explain, attributed to desire to find his dead master. At las; the event dreaded occurred. One cold winters evening Jacko disappeared | while the cook was interviewing her fla yorite policeman at the hack door and 1 got we'll away. The cook received d months notice on the spot and I was | at once put on the track of the animal. l Mrs. Tremaine was much annoyed be- | cause l wished to put on my boots be- fore starting, and even Maud seemed only anxious for the monkeys health. After tramping through three or four miles of streets 1 experienced what at first l regarded as unexpected good l luck. The brute came tearing round a | corner, and in a second he was in the butterfly net. l was just preparing to | return, elated that the run had been so unmercifully cut short, when a crowd also came round the corner, headed by an angry and breathless Italian. soon discovered the connection of events. The Italian could not speak much Eng | fish, but I gathered that he claimed Jacko as his monkey, his carrissimo monkey. The crowd, who had become excited in the chase, and who imag- ined that was attempting to cheat d poor, ignorant foreigner out of his only solace in a strange land demanded that l should give the monkey up. The vision of Maud's face, if the scared ami nal spent the night in the possession of an untrustworthy Italian, rose before my eyes, and I distinctively declined to relinquish Jacko.
 In the course of conversation with the crowd 1 lost my temper and a con- siderable portion of my clothes, and by the time that a policeman arrived I suppose my appearance did justify hirn in conveying Jacko, the Italian and me to the police station. There I spent d most miserable night. My utmost en- treaties failed to induce the police 70 send to Mrs. Tremaine to bail me out. think their malevolence was prompted by the policeman who had been so rude ly interrupted in his tryst with the cook.
 ''In the morning we appeared before his worship. The Italian and 1 were charged with creating a disturbance and assaults, and breaches of the peace and that kind of thing, and, as far as l remember, the police threw in a charge of drunk and dsorderly against me. His worship asked to see the mon key, and, when they brought him in, To and behold! there were two Jackos. After some explanation the magis- trate dismissed the charges against us with a caution, on the ground of ex- cusable mistake. And, indeed it was most eXcusable. Apparently the Ital- ian had really lost his monkey, and whether it was his monkey or Jaclso that he had been pursuing when I en- countered it I do not know to this day At all events, the police had captured the other monkey during the night and had shut the two up together. There they sat, two ugly, grinning, indistin- guishable creatures, both guilty, ac- cording to the evidence, of aggravated assaults on the police.
 "When we were released from the dock the magistrate asked us to re move the monkeys. The Italian and stared at each ether blankly. He knew no more than which was his property Of course, it was useless to consult the police about their identity. As the mag istrate pointed out, there is no pre- sumption either in law or in fact as to the ownership of two stray monkeys. I appealed to him to decide the question himself. and he pointed out that it was the duty of the police to restore proper Y to it's owners. He said that he was not Solomon, but only police magis trate, and that he doubted whether even the house of lords could throw much light on the subject. The matter, he thought, was eminently one to be set tied out of court.
 At first tried to solve the difficulty by buying out the Italians claim to either of the monkeys, with the idea of sorting them afterward. But he, also, it appeared, had a romantic attachment for his carrissimo monkey, and he de- clined my overtures with fervent ap peals to most of the saints on the reg ister. The whole thing, he seemed to think, was base attempt on the part Of foreign brutal government to trample on the rights of an Italian citizen and to consign his monkey to the dungeons of the Zoo Then I offered him his choice of the two, and this might have