The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-02-20
AN INHUMAN FATHER.
He Taught His Own Child to Act the
Part Of Monkey.


Army work were made known can b
judged from this story which Commando
Booth Tucker told to reporter.
Commander Booth Tucker and Briga
dier Swift of the New York Salvationist
can show you little girl attending one O
the grammar schools of that city who's
father deliberately 80 stunted her growt
and mistreated her in other respects tina
be was able to use her to beg pennies as
grind organ monkey without people VIII
saw her suspccting that she was othe
than the beast she represented.
1t was down in the Kentish hop field
of England that Brigadier Swift fount
the pitiable little creature. Mrs. Swift
keen eyes had seen humanity in so many
almost unrecognizable forms that they
detected it even in this forlorn little bein,
through ull brutalizing disguise Will
which her parent had endeavored to con
ceal the fact that she was of human kind
The child was then, as nearly as coule
be guessed, about three years old. Sht
was dressed in dirty red jacket trimmed
with lace and shining buttons, like thu
typical hand organ monkey. Her dimin
utive body, moreover, had been squeezed
into the skin of real monkey.
1t fitted down closely over the entire
face, leaving only openings for the mouth
and nostrils and two holes surrounded by
hair, through which pair of eyes peered
Originally the monkey skin had been
made to cover the hands and feet, but
had worn away, leaving the tiny men,
bers bare, save for the thickly incrusted
filth and dirt that covered them almost
beyond recognition.
The monkey skin upon her body had
become worn bare in spots, and besides
was moth-eaten and had been dinghy
patched, but the apelike tricks the child
had been beaten into acquiring readily
diverted attention from these defects.
To the gaping crowd of stolid hop
pickers and stupid farm laborers before
whom she was exhibited she was the typ
ical grind-organ monkey they had been
used to seeing, only trifle more knowing
and impsh in her grotesque caricature
of humanity than the ordinary run.
She could climb table leg as nimbly
as any monkey ever exhibited, and there
was contrivance by which she could
move the tail that was attached to the
monkey skin she wore. 1t was dreadfully
fatiguing work for the wlthered little
midget to move this tail, and out of all
the horrors of her life the memory of the
half-fainting efforts to do this still comes
back to her as among the most vivid of
her child miseries.
The estimabe parent who maintained
his valuable existence by thus exhibiting
bis offspring took q sound commercial
view of bis property, and did not pound
her except in moments of mental depres
sion incident to alcoholic relaxation.
He had to starve her and had fed her
on gin from childhood in order to repress
her untilial tendency to outgrow her mon
key skin, and be knew that this could
not 60 on forever without killing her.
So be was trying to get as much out of
her as be could while she lasted.
But in one way and another she was a
great trial to her benevolent parent. She
wore away the fur of her mon
key skin for one thing, and as she grew
older became perverse in the matter of
exhibiting human tendencies at critical
in the exhibition. Walloping,
Of course, was the only remedy for this.
and wallopings wore her and shortened
her days, and this, too, was a source of
aggravatlon.
During the So inner the father and his
girl monkey tramped it alone, and once in
awhile, by way of variety, the father let
her out of her monkey skin, and sent her
begging from house to house, with in
'tructions to steal whatever she could Law
her hands on.
In the winter the two joined company
'fmen who played sort of pantomime,
the father assuming the role and costume
If horned devil. The girl monkey ap.
'eared with aud relieved his heavy viii
ain part by her apish tricks and agility.
'he Climbed table legs, nibbled the nuts
hat were handed her and begged pennies
y passing around the little red monkey
lat that she wore.
BrIagadier Swift found her as related,
eadily got her away from her father, on
oudition that he be not prosecuted,
dopted her as her own child and brought
er to this country. Speaking of her,
Booth Tucker said:
"The little girl is very sensitive about
er history. Her secret, out of respect
or her feelings, has SO far been kept
rom all but very few of her friends.
he is at present attending one of the
ublic schools of this city. She is an
unusually bright child, of refined tastes
nd with very lofty ideas and ambitions.
u consider it very remarkable that, in
pite of her early training and her doubt.
III heredity, she should have turned out
, we'll,