The San Francisco call., 1910-04-16
MODERN noah TELLS
TALES OF HIS ARK
Skipper Relates Experiences in
Managing Menagerie on
a Steamer

any other living skipper. / am the
fun and adventure in it, and quite a
pot of money, if you have luck and
fair weather. said Captain Wilkes of
the British steamship Indrani, from
Borneo and Manila, now at the Mystic
wharf completing his eighth voyage
from the orient with wild animal car
goes.
Full laden with the spice of the
orient, manned by Lascars wearing
queer little caps Cinnamon in laundry
costumes and commanded by British
officers in gold braided uniforms, the
Indrani. from Borneo and Manila.
swung sulleply with the tide as Cap
tain Wilkes told tales of things, says
the Boston Post.
The last time l made port here" he
said, the newspapers at home said I'd
wrapped a python around the funnel to
lision with a sailing vessel because the
bloomin' snake plugged the siren with
its tail.
when l got to England the owners
put me on the rocks for a bad half
hour of jolly good parliamentary
talking"
He indicated box of Manila cigars
in a cordial way.
SOLD WHITE MONKEY
The Chinaman at Singapore sold me
a fine white monkey" he reminisced,
but l didn't dare try to bring it
across. So l sold it before leaving
why didn't you dare bring it?"
The captains eye twinkled
Il might say ! didn't have any white
wash aboard" he retorted, but 1 don't.
might have used paint, you know"
He grinned and lighted a cigar.
The first voyage l made four years
ago with a zoo," he began again, II
had four snakes, a black panther and a
cub tiger. On the way 1 lost the python
and the day after the water front re-
porters of New York finished with me
got a cable from home from a scien-
tific society, asking for detailed re-
port on the strange end of the snakes.
For it was in all the papers at home
that one morning 1 found the pythons
had swallowed themselves in pairs, and
there were only two pairs of heads,
nose to nose, left in the cage. and no
bodies in sight Then, according to tn :
story, copied from the New York pa
pers. I tossed up the heads and the
tails came up"
How could that happen? There
wasn't head on each side?"
That's what the society wanted to
KNOW ABOUT, SAID the captain. SlyIN.
But that wasn't the worst of that
trip" continued the captain as his COO
lie boy served tea; "a couple of boobies
came aboard and began pursuing the
black panther l told them to look out,
but they laughed at me and began
shooting nutmegs at him. All of a sud
der he saw his chance and shoots one
paw through the bar and keelhauls
one bobby from the back of his neck
IL IL
face. The bobby collected SIS for his
helmet.
BABOON COMMITS SUICIDE
The big Queen of the Pythons' in
the Bronx park zoo in New York was
lady to bring over" he observed;
shed come crawling along at meal
time-about once a month-and just
open her mouth and"
He checked himself and asked:
Now you'll be printing something
about manicuring her teeth with a
swab. 1 wager?'
Reassured, he continued:
open her mouth and shoot out her
tongue didn't say shoot off her
mouth and stick out her tongue, mind
but 1 know you have it So
Where do you get your ZOOS from,
captain?"
From the whitest Chinaman in
Singapore" he returned His name ?
Oh, it might be Moy Coon. or Quen Chi.
They've gangs working all through In
dia. They tell you what they are going
to have, and you order before the goods
come in.
The second trip over 1 got big
baboon from him. Most intelligent ami
NAL l ever saw. l hadn't fed him more
than a week before 1 had him using
hair brush and comb and making
grunts for a pair of pants. Too bad
about him"
Why" what happened?"
Why" said the captain, cautiously,
you'll probably say he tried to use the
hair brush for tooth brush, but really
] think he got angry because he had
no pants, and ate the brush with sui
cidal intent. Anyway, the brush was
missing. I'll never try to civilize a
monkey again"