THE MONKEYS AND THE RED CAPS

A SAILOR Once went ashore on the coast of He had with him a number of

South America.

red caps for sale.

On his way to a town some distance from the coast, he had to pass through a forest, in which troops of monkeys were everywhere seen climbing among the trees.

At noon the sailor lay down to rest under the shade of a large tree. Taking one of the caps out of his bundle, he put it on his head, and soon fell fast asleep.

When he awoke, he was surprised to find that the caps were all gone. He heard a most unusual chattering among the dense branches above him, and, looking up, he saw the trees alive with monkeys. On the head of each monkey was a red cap. The little mimics had watched his proceedings, and, having stolen his caps while he slept, had adorned their heads likewise.

The sailor remonstrated with the monkeys; but they gave no heed to his shouts, and only grinned at his rage.

Finding every attempt to get back his caps fruitless, he pulled off the cap that was on his own head, and threw it on the ground, crying out, "Here, you little thieving rogues, if you will keep the rest, you may take this one too."

Each

No sooner had he done this than, to his great joy, the little animals did the same. snatched the cap from his head and threw it on the ground.

Thus the sailor regained his caps, and marched off in triumph.

A SMART MONKEY FEAT

Most monkeys are incapable of swimming, and therefore avoid the water as far as possible. But they make up for this inability in other ways.

Travelers tell us that monkeys cross rivers by forming a chain attached to the overhanging branches of the trees on one side. When the chain is long enough, they give it a swinging motion, which enables the lowest monkey to catch hold of the limbs on the other side. He mounts till the chain is drawn straight from tree to tree, when the opposite monkey lets go, and the whole group are transported across the stream without touching the water.

HOW A MONKEY RULED A BOAT

AN animal dealer was bringing some monkeys from Albany to New York one night on the Hudson River Night Line steamer Berkshire.

Soon after leaving Albany one of the monkeys got loose. He decided he would like to be captain of the ship, it seems, and was for a short time. He soon started the liveliest little party the Berkshire had ever seen in all her voyaging days. First he seized several umbrellas from passengers and did some wild dances on the deck. Then he scampered around over the boat from stem to stern. Finally, as a last performance, he went down to the engine-room and threw coal at the engineer and firemen, who dodged his missiles and retreated.

At last he was chased to the top deck, and, seeing that he was about to be captured, mounted the rail and jumped overboard into the river, and was drowned. His last cry seemed to be," Death before surrender."

AN EDUCATED CHIMPANZEE

LIKE some other animals, monkeys are susceptible of some education. Under the direction of his keeper, a chimpanzee at the Washington, D. C., Zoo, was taught to sit up to a table regularly each day for years, and after having a napkin tied around his neck, take a pencil and piece of paper and go through the form of writing out his menu, ring a bell for his food to be brought

to him, take a fork and eat his sliced banana or other fruit with it, and pour milk from a bottle into a glass and drink it.

He kept up this performance for thousands of interested spectators until he was about nine years old, when he refused to act in this humanistic manner any longer.

CHIMPANZEE SHOOTS AT TRAINER

HENRY VAN NESS, an animal trainer at the Sheesley Zoo in Baltimore, was shot at one night by a big chimpanzee. Fortunately, however, the revolver contained only a blank cartridge, and so no damage was done.

The chimpanzee had a habit of imitating the trainers and other employees of the zoo. The night he did the shooting he saw the bear-trainer point a revolver at one of the bears when the animal refused to go through his act. The trainer then placed the revolver on the stand in the big caged arena. When he had finished with the bear act, he forgot to take the revolver with him as he was accustomed to do.

The chimpanzee watched the bear act from its cage, and when Mr. Van Ness placed the chimpanzee in the arena the animal picked up the revolver and fired at him.

A RIOTOUS MONKEY IN COURT

MINNIE, a bare-legged, red-jacketed, greencapped monkey, subpoenaed as a star witness for the prosecution in a gambling case in New York City one day, successfully wrecked the dignity of Magistrate Frothingham's court.

Minnie was supposed to show how she aided her owner in conducting a corner-lot game of chance by pulling out of a box numbered balls upon which participants had placed bets. Instead, this is what she did: She leaped onto the magistrate's desk, causing him to duck; spilled a bottle of ink; hurled a glass of water at an attendant; tore the coat of a detective ordered to arrest her; and finally departed from the court screeching.

PONTO, THE YOUNG ORANG-UTAN

YEARS ago a young Asiatic orang-utan, about three feet in height, was brought from Borneo to England. The sailors named him Ponto. After being brought on board the ship in a bamboo cage, he succeeded in breaking the bamboo and making his escape from the cage.

After various attempts to secure him, he was finally allowed to wander freely about the ship,