A Pair of Midget Donkeys Driven by a Baboon and Groomed by a Monkey
Any one who pays attention can be taught, whether boy, monkey, or dog. As long ago as 1753 this was shown in London in the case of the monkey and the dog. In that year everybody in London was going to see and was talking about "Mrs. Midnight's Animal Comedians." This was a troupe of trained dogs and monkeys who were taught to dance a ballet, dressed as ladies and gentlemen. This they did very neatly and cleverly.
But their great act was when, dressed as soldiers, they took part in a mock battle. A fort was built on the stage which was defended by the monkeys and attacked by the dogs. Everything was done as in regular battle. The dogs carried ladders and tried to climb them and capture the fort. The monkeys, armed with muskets, fired on them and the air was full of smoke and the smell of powder.
After a hard fight the dogs took the fort. Then the monkeys dropped their muskets, the smoke cleared away, and both parties were seen drawn up side by side, waving their hats, while the band played "God save the king."
THE KINDS OF MONKEYS
The stories we have given about monkeys are only a few of the many that might be told, and it is well to give some more to show that monkeys think and act, up to a certain limit, very much as we do ourselves.
But you must bear in mind that there are many kinds of monkeys, some with good and some with bad tempers and some with much better brains than others. When we talk of the house dog and cat, the horse and cow, it must be remembered that each of these is a single species of animal. But when we talk of the monkey we have to do with a whole family of animals, of a great many different species.
Thus there are New World monkeys and Old World monkeys which differ so that we can always tell them apart. One curious thing about the New World monkeys is that they all live in trees and have long tails, which they can use in such a way that they seem to have five legs. They twist their tails firmly around the limbs of trees and swing about, leaving their legs, or arms, free to help them in other ways. There is nothing like this in the Old World monkeys. Some of these have no tails. Others have long tails, but none of them have learned how to use these as ropes to swing on from tree limbs.
All monkeys have thinking powers, which they show in various ways, but the best thinkers among them are those known as man-like monkeys. This is the meaning of the name we give them, that of Anthropoid Apes. They are the highest members of the monkey family, and are like men in a good many ways. They have no tails, are of large size, and can stand and walk upright if they want to—though they do not often want to.