Side Show Studies | Page 9

to attract her attention
and Jocko, giving a howl of rage, danced madly up and down on all
fours, showing a vicious set of fangs as his lips curled back in a
hideous snarl. The bars of his cage were strong and so close together
that he could not get out to attack his rival; but he gathered up a mass
of litter from the floor and showered Prima Donna and callow youth
alike. His screams echoed through the Arena and caused even the
majestic lions and the haughty tigers to look in the direction of the cage
of the despised "Bandar Log," and made the smaller animals uneasy.
The woman who was described on the programme as "Miss ----,
Famous Society Woman," had torn herself away from her arduous
social duties with the Four Hundred to exhibit a troupe of leopards to a
Coney Island audience, her identity concealed by a small black mask,
and her performance in the big cage was interrupted by the noise; so the
Proprietor thought it time to interfere.
[Illustration: "He smoked his cigar in the lobby like any other guest."]
The Prima Donna laughed good-naturedly as he helped to brush the
sawdust and litter from her dress and tactfully drew her away, and
Jocko quieted down and implored her to return; but she was
accustomed to gentler wooing, and refused to put her dainty gown
again in jeopardy.
"Jocko gave quite a performance to-night," said the Proprietor as he
joined the Press Agent and the Stranger at the table, after the show.
"That baboon is crazy about women; but he hasn't the discrimination of
Consul, the most intelligent monkey that ever lived. You may
remember that he was never quiet in his cage, but if a specially
well-dressed woman stopped in front of it he played entirely to her and
when she moved away his eyes followed her as long as she was in
sight."
"There will never be another like Consul," said the Press Agent,
shaking his head sadly. "He made my job a sinecure, for he was good
for a column any day and a full page on Sundays."
"Never until the Missing Link is discovered," replied the Proprietor. "I

don't believe a more human monkey will ever be found, and I attribute
his wonderful intelligence to the fact that he associated entirely with
human beings, almost from the day of his birth. I got him from the
captain of a tramp steamer which traded to the West Coast, and I paid a
goodish bit of money for him too. I have never dared to tell his early
history as it was told to me, for fear I should be laughed at for a liar;
but stranger things happen in the animal business than ever get into
print, and if I dared risk my reputation by telling the things which
actually occur in a menagerie, I should never need a Press Agent; but a
plausible lie is accepted where a truth which sounds improbable is
turned down."
The Press Agent looked at him reproachfully, but agreed with the
proposition.
"Do you know, I have found that to be true when I have visited the
newspaper offices," he said. "I have actually had to embroider some of
the accounts of things which have happened here."
"I suspected it, for I didn't recognize some of the stories when I saw
them in print," answered the Proprietor, smiling at him approvingly. He
consented to tell the history of Consul, the famous chimpanzee, when
the Stranger expressed his entire credulity and the Press Agent assumed
an encouraging and sympathetic attitude.
[Illustration: "Jocko, giving a howl of rage, danced madly up and
down."]
"Of course, I have to take the ship captain's word for what happened
before I bought him, but from the way the chimp developed and the
intelligence he displayed after he came into my possession, I am
prepared to believe it. He told me that he got him from the natives at
the mouth of a small river on the West Coast, where he anchored his
steamer to trade. They came off about the ship in their canoes, but he
did not care for the rubber and ivory they had to offer and he was about
to hoist anchor when one of them, who was in a small canoe with a
woman, motioned to him to stop. The woman was crouched up in the
stern, nursing what the captain thought was a baby, but when the man

dragged it away from her, in spite of her voluble protest, he saw that it
was a small chimpanzee. The man seemed desperately anxious to
trade--and I imagine the captain's trade goods were not the sort to meet
the entire approval of the missionaries--so that a bargain was