Peace Predicted—See [Age, The New].
PEACEFUL INSTINCT OF SIMIANS
The acquisitive energy of a monkey-swarm must be witnessed to be credited. In the banana-gardens of the tierra caliente a Mexican capuchin monkey will exhaust his business opportunities with the dispatch of a Cincinnati bank cashier; but, in his attempt to reach the Canadian side of the hedge with a good armful of plunder, so often falls a victim to the pursuing dogs that monkey-trappers frequently rent an orchard for the special purpose of capturing the retreating marauders. In spite of their mischievous petulance, nearly all the Old World species of our four-handed kinsmen are emotionally sympathetic and ever ready to rescue their wounded friends at the risk of their own lives. At the cry of a captured baby baboon the whole tribe of passionate four-fisters will rush in regardless of consequences, and a similar tendency of cooperation may have given our hairy forefathers a superior chance of survival and secured their victory in their struggle for existence against their feline rivals. Their list of original sins may have included gluttony, covetousness and violence of temper, but hardly a penchant for wanton bloodshed. With the exception of the fox-headed lemurs and the ultra-stupid marmosets, nearly all our simian relatives evince symptoms of a character-trait which might be defined as an instinctive aversion to cruelty. Menagerie monkeys indulge their love of gymnastics by frequent scuffles; but the sight of a bona fide fight awakens a chorus of shrieks expressing a general protest rather than an emotion of fear or even partizan interest, for in an open arena the stouter members of the obstreperous community are sure to rush in and part the combatants.—Felix Oswald, Popular Science Monthly.
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PEACEMAKER, THE
Just in the shade of the arena’s gate,
They trooped and paused; and to the ranks of eyes
That questioned ere they drove them on to fate,
Steel-swift, steel-steady, did their answers rise—
“I fight to break the tyranny I hate!”