On it was written:—
Homo sapiens
MAN ♂
This specimen, born in Scotland, was presented to the Society by John Cromartie, Esq. Visitors are requested not to irritate the Man by personal remarks.
When Cromartie had had breakfast there was very little to do; he made his bed and began reading “The Golden Bough.”
Nobody came into the Ape-house until twelve o’clock, when two little girls came in; they looked into his cage, and the younger of them said to her sister:
“What monkey’s that? Where is it?”
“I don’t know,” said the elder girl. Then she said: “I believe the man is there to be looked at.”
“Why he’s just like Uncle Bernard,” said the little girl.
They looked at Cromartie with an offended stare, and then went on at once to the Orang-outang, who was an old friend. The grown-up people who came in during the afternoon read the notice in a puzzled way, sometimes aloud, and more than once after a hurried glance they went out of the house. They were all embarrassed except a jaunty little man who came in just before closing time. He laughed, and laughed again, and finally he had to sit down on a seat, where he sat choking for three or four minutes, after which he took off his hat to Cromartie and went out of the house saying aloud: “Splendid! Wonderful! Bravo!”
The next day there were rather more people, but not a great crowd. One or two men came and took photographs, but Mr. Cromartie had already learnt a trick that was to serve him well in his new situation—that of not looking through the bars, so that often he would not know whether there were people watching him or not. Everything was made very comfortable for him, and on that score he was glad enough that he had come.