The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-12

| Z. NEW IOTk ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
| LII the monkeys know about
| "a it. THAT Christmas din
/ ner" is never-failing topic
| ~ for the oldest inhabitant"
! 4 N In reminiscent moments in
| the bosom Of his family
and among the recent
Simian arrivals. OF course it's, the
primates' house at the Geological
park at "half after in the after
noon," the same as at other folks
houses. And as for the menu, well, |
there are potatoes and sweet potatoes,
graham bread, and bananas, apples,
oranges, dates, and little celery.
For the monkeys Christmas morning
| morning. Seven o'clock finds the
monkey-house still as DEATH Outside
the sun creeps into sight, while inside
| the light is dim, and not a monkey
astir. The hundred and two little
half-human animals slept away in
to keep awake half the night watching
and waiting for Santa Claus. The only
sound to break the stiffness is the oc-
/ casional rustic Of straw as some SOM
nambulist, dreaming of the tangled
forests of Africa or South America,
heated, automatically regulated dwell
| ing place carried out the similitude of
i the tropics with an even temperature
Of rs degrees.
i First to break the stiffness was the
tramp of feet on the board walk out
/ side as keeper approached. It was
Joseph Miles, the trainer, and as he
fitted the key in the door there was
| immediate commotion A chain rat
tied as monkey near the door sprang
from his hay bed to a trapeze. From
the large central room came the
sounds of a heavy thud as the long
armed baboon sprang from the shelf
, where he had spent the night to the
. floor of his cage. From the lemur's
: cage opposite came a short half-bark,
half-grunt, followed by the pattering
of many feet, as the little, wide-eyed,
long-tailed animals scurried to- the
front of the cage. The little monkeys
in the small cages set up a shrill chat
tering, which was taken up from cage
to cage, until the place sounded like
: a forest in the tropics. In the chorus
of strange sounds could be distin-
), guished now and then the hoarse bark
Ilof the baboons and the prolonged
) "wow" of Soko, the chimpanzee.
e. Next door to Soko, Dohong, the
orangoutrang, and Polly, young
/ chimpanzee, recognized the step of
). their keeper and scrambled out from
!, their blankets. By this time every
monkey was wide awake and greeting
Z the keepers with Merry Christmas in
. every variety of monkey tongue. The
, japanese red-faced monkeys and the
t Tschelf monkey, known as cold
weather monkeys" emerged from
+ their little wooden, straw-fllled houses.
: Their kind in Japan and eastern Asia
stands a temperature close to zero.
), Lazy jake" from Japan, the only one
who has stood in" with Keeper Miles,
/ lay buried in his heap of straw, the
J I breath steaming white from his pro-
> truding nose. He eyes the lone Wis
:, itor suspiciously, but refused to climb
: out until the keeper appeared.
Jake kicked himself out of his straw
mattress hastily. The keeper spoke to
the Tscheli monkey in the next cage
and Jake. roaring and growing in
anger, seized his feed pan and battered
it against his cage.
a nice Christmas greeting, Jake. Why
don't you behave yourself
e Jake sidled UP to the bars, rolled his
a eyes and reached a hand thru to
a q shake. Jake once was a handsome
y y monkey, as Japanese monkeys go, but
# now his face is battered and his nose
e is broken-all due to jealousy. He
: loves his keeper with such ardent af-
7 : fection that this has caused his multi
h alton.
I Tscheli is his deadly enemy and il
n a chance should ever place them ir
Il
worth any monkeys valor. Once they
er were together; Jake nearly lost hi:
- fingers. It was all due to JEALOUSY
~ ~ over Keeper Miles. Jake's broker
nose was self-inficted in a momen
I'd when the keeper was petting Tscheli
4 AS he turned to go Miles spoke tt
&c &c Jake's rival and Jake again flew into
ID a rage, hurting things about his cage
,e and throwing himself violently agains
or the netting.
Dehong and Polly waited for the
). keeper with bodies pressed har6
against the wires
Merry Christmas, Dohong, and yor
Polly" said Miles. How are the
children this morning. One after
the other they thrust their long arms
thru the netting and clasped his neck
How is it, Polly: are you hungry
this morning? AS it is Christmas I'll
give you just a bite" He went into
the supply room and returned with
two pieces of toasted bread. There
was an incessant stream of monkey
talk coming from every cage except
one. Only a small Whimper there came
from one of the six monkeys who
were scattered about the cage, each
sitting in detection.
On the floor seventh monkey
stretched stark and stiff. For fully
five minutes not a monkey in the
/ Cage lIlOV6Q.E El1l0n one SIlQ QOWI
from his perch and approached tleil
dead comrade. He Deered solemn1y
into his face a moment. then climbed
slowly back to his perch His exam
pie was followed by each of the six
One shook the dead monkey as tho
trying to arouse him. The last one
and the largest, gripped the deaG
body by the shoulders and tried tc
raise it to it's feet. Finding this use
less the six resumed their statuesque
postures and waited.
Soon one of the keepers entered tht
cage and took out the dead body. A.
he passed the front of the cage on hi:
way out every one of the dead mon
keys comrades with face hare
pressed against the netting, watched
him silently. After this brief funera
the keepers started cleaning out thu
cages and making the animals pre-
sentable for the throng of visitors
The cages were swept and scrubbed
clean, and fresh hay was put in. The,
were washed from top to bottom Will
soap and water and disinfectant. Ever
the glass which the monkeys hat
rubbed their hands against wa
washed. Keeper Miles attended t.
the cages Of Soko, Dohong and Polly
and the large apes and balloons. HI
is the only one who dares venture II
- the cages of the large baboons
tsSoko is I'm had humOr this morn