Newport weekly independent., 1903-12-18
ARJSTOcRATIC APES.
Lead a Life of Ease and Contentment
 in London sZoo.n

the ''ZOo' the inmates live life of luxury and leisured ease such as has never fallen to the lot of apes since the days when Hanno the Carthaginian first encoun- tered the gorillas, says the Lon don Spectator. The greater num- Der of the inmates are blameless clhmpanzees, who live there the ideal contemplatiye life, surround ed by those external goods" without which, as Aristotle re- marks, it is very difficult to main tain the highest standard of intel lectual calm. These chimpanzees are not i'll the least lowered in character by living like gentle
 men, with man to wait on them, spacious apartments, furniture de signed on the most careful lines to secure simian ease, and other ex- amples of the "minor arts" includ- ing parquet floor, which, in the words of an aesthetic advertise ment of the past, ''cOnduce to the leading of a dignified and happy life" They are neither unduly elated nor selfindulgent. On the contrary, they exhibit dignified and mild appreciation of the sit
 uation, and endeayor to show the London crowd which gazes on them the real value of leisure, and what the natural life in the golden age was before hurry was invented, and when no natural ca tastrophe of any kind had inter- rupted their felicity. The same philosophic appreciation is shown by the two quite young chimpan- gees as by the grown-up ape of the same race next to them. Observ- ing their deliberate movements, their grave contentment, their ab- sence of hurry, it is impossible also not to form theory as to their immense moral and physical superiority, looking only to the ends of life, over man. Charles Lamb has divided mankind into the superior class which borrows, and the inferior class which lends. In every part of the physique of these grave and equable apes ono detects something of their semi moral superiority over man. They are framed not to make, but to take; not to toll, but to receive. Their organs for walking and for working have become absolutely atrophied; but in place of legs to carry burdens and fingers to dig or to oil motors with, they have no less than four pairs of hands, all meant for receiving, not for con. triying. Their arms and legs arc elongated-p partly, maybe, to aid them in their journeys across the forest top, but mainly employed in their leisure life to widen the range at which their hands may take the offerings of their inferi- or, man. It is quite obvious that this was intended by nature. They need no teaching. They ac- cept the situation. From the de meanor of the younger apes it is clear that they were born "in the purple" They fill the position ar once and without instruction. Its grandeur causes them no more misgiving than the luxury of pal ace would the youthful sons of a sultan. One of the tokens that good fortune is deserved is when the possessor knows how to use it, as these young chimpanzees do. They seldom sit down-in- deed, nature has evidently not in- tended they should. It is at best but half-and-half repose. They lie on their backs-on rugs. When they wish to move they despise walking; they push themselves gently along on their sides by the aid of their knuckles and elbows: and when beautiful bright tin of milk or of fruit is respectfully set beside their couch, they stretch out leg, not an arm, and with the hand at the end of it draw it gen. tly near them. Too indolent to raise their heads to see what the contents are, they lazily shake the pan backwards and forwards till the milk spills over the edpe.