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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1955-09-29, Page 3Chimpanzee Was Almost Human Had Philip been human he probably would have been a very distinguished person, res- pected for his great intellectual powers and admired for his so- cial accomplishments, Actually he was. a very clever and well educated chimpanzee who died at Edinburgh Zoo not long ago at the advanced age of nearly thirty. Almost the only thing Philip couldn't do was speak. He' was such a past master of. the art of imitating that before he was very old he had acquired practi- cally every other human accom- plishment. When he was only a few months old he was adopt- ed by Mr. W, E. Humphries, an Englishman living • in Nigeria. For the next eight years be lived as one of Mr, Humphries' household, working as a house. boy: When M. Humphries came home tired at the end of the day Philip would unlace and take cit his boots and put on his slip- pers Then • he would bring newspapers or magazines for him to read, and make himself generally useful about the Mum, Like all- set tants, Philip look- ed forward to his leisure hours, when he was able to sit hack and enjoy a smoke and a drink, Sometimes he decided to •go for a ride on the tricycle that had been bought for hint. Philip enjoyed al] forms al smoking. I£ Ire u'as• offered an open cigarette case and a box of matches he would carefully take a cigarette and put it be- tween his lips, lighting it with a match taken from the hex. He would then puff away at the cigarette with obvious en- joyment, c 'ovate t knocking off the ash J n, o 0 every now and again, and fine ally stubbing out the end, just as he had seen his master do, • He also enjoyed cigars when they came his way, but his fav- ourite smoke was a pipe. He never mastered the art of light ing it. so it was considered p0 - lite to fill Itis -pipe and light it for him. He would then sit back in a chair and- enjoy it; careful- ly cleaning out the ash from the - bowl when it Was finished, His taste in drinks was wide, though here, too. he showed dis- crimination. He would sit down and enjoy a glass of beer with anyone, and would appreciate gin and bitters or whisky and lemonade. Above all he liked port., perhaps unconsciously em- phasizing .his essentially gentle- manly character: Lt his port drinking Philip went back to the good old days, when you drank it by the bottle. Although capable of putting the bottle to his lips and draining it t itsupplied in one draught, sup]d with a wine glass it would despatch his favourite drink in more genteel m a r, n e r, repeatedly holding out the glass for refill until the bottle was empty As you may imagine, zoo ani- mals are not usually given to smoking and drinking, so when at the- age of eight Philip came to Edinburgh Zoo. bringing his tricycle with hint, he caused quite a stir. Philip's change of home became necessary because Mr. Humphries came over to England to live, and no longer needed a trained houseboy The zoo authorities were de- lighted and a little bewildered by their new guest. Zoo chimps cannot of course enjoy the same freedom as those living with families, and in any case Philip was approaching an • age when he was likely to become less good-tempered. Nevertheless, for a time he was allowed to spend part of the day cycling around the zoo, usually with a cigarette between his lips. His last social function took place seine little time after his arrival, when Mr, Humphries paid a visit to the zoo with a friend. With Philip they were entertained in the library by he superintendent of the zoo, the four of them sitting around in armchairs smoking cigarettes and drinking glasses of beer. When the zoo authorities fin- ally decided that it was no longer safe to give Philip the freedom of the grounds, they discovered to their dismay that his cleverness made it more than ordinarily difficult to con- fine him to a cage. He soon realized that if shoe -laces could be unlaced, so could wire -net- ting! The first time he escaped he went straight up to a rather scared young lady and proceed- ed +to unlace her shoes, Al- though he remained one of the best known personalities at Edinburgh Zoo until his death, he gradually lost some of his finer accomplishments. The time came when he could no longer light his own cigarette, though he continued to enjoy one if it was lit for him, Chimps es houseboys and companions are not so rare as ono would imagine. Many years ago a collector .from Natural History Museum had a startling experience on one of his trips to the interior of Africa. Arriv- ing after dark at a remote river landing stage in order to visit a white man, he was just setting off along an ill-defined path through the dense undergrowth when he saw a lantern bobbing towards him. It was swinging scarcely a foot from the ground. He thought his host must have sent a native child to meet him. But guide turned out to be a half-grown chimpanzee who took his hand and led him to the white man's hurl This story unforuntaely had a tragic sequel. When the ani- mal approached maturity there was the usual change of char- acter, and fits of temper devel- oped. Despite repeated warn- ings that it was no longer safe for him to keep such a power- ful animal at large about the hut, the white man refused to give up his companion, No un- armed man would be a match for an infuriated chimp, and one day his mutilated body was found in the hut. He had been overpowered and killed by his former friend. Cheery Kearton, the famous naturalist and traveller, had a wonderful chimpanzee called Toto. who was his constant companion for several years. Kearton became as attached to Toto as Toto was to him, and immortalizzed his pet in a famous book "My Friend Toto." Reading this book one can ap- preciate the great comfort this affectionate and helpful animal must have been to Kearton, alone in the wilds of Africa. Toto's extradorinary devo- tion was shown on one occasion when his master went down with a severe attack of fever. "Toto made himself my nurse," Kearton records. "A1I day he would sit beside me, watching with a care that seemed almost maternal, and anything that I wanted he would bring me. He would go to the medicine chest when I told him to do so, and bring the bottle of quinine.. and then he would fetch a glass and water" Each afternoon, his house- hold chores completed, he would lie down on the bed be- side his master, put an arm around him, and fall asleep. Mount Robson, in B.C., is Canada's best known mountain but Mount Logan, in the Yukon, is nearly a mile and a hall higher. 5. Malt Mucor 25. Growing out CROSSWORD 6. Alan's name 30. Greek l 'aS�dw ,„� 7. Etcher 31, Greek cotter ��� R. weary alake PUZZLE 10. Writingi� 24. OM -101115e _ Implement _ _._ 11, Compass ACROSS 60. 'timber tree point. 1. without st,g'+r 51. Climbing 11, Age pereneiai 19. Putt up 9, Rotating 52. Terminal 22, American Piece 53. Diocese 7. Public srorchou,.i UOwN 12. 001t Instructor 13. wing 14. Baseball teams 15. Take up weapopn 26. Foreign 18, Cables 20. Pulled apart 31, Of an hits» tortoni period 22. The pinese0:e 32 Before (pretax) 36. 17dible blvd 21. The soft palate 10. Shutt gradually 12, Articles of belief 38. Fortner Prime Ws lel er 44, French revolutionist 15, 29 hours lb. lintrance. 34. DomOnHleft* tivo pronoun 41. Gin izer. 46, 1.talian sculptor 41. Specify 4i. Slower (1234.) 48. Zeal 45. Cot1oit-pond• loll marble.e 1. Do without 2.2. hank* 3, Sollell,' 4. riplosrve devices 87. Diamond State tab .> 20. Aro !untie seed 40. A tenth poet 41, On 23. States. 0 42, Make a loan excessive 43. Salt fullness 44, 'three 24. Deep wagon (prefix) trach 45, 0100201n 25. Type 00 tares in Crete 27. Dojos. ment 48, Mete) I 2 3 I. 4 5 6 © olil.t-®©©n 7 8 s 1111 1 a ■1116 :.1- "a3' 13 ■ UI*UU a©©©© r4 ■■�■ 15 18 1 19 1120 1nem Ori© „ r. at 1111k5,;." ■■e ©©0 © � 23 24 is ? pt 26 27 .Ili' 2e 29 ■11 30 31' 1111 Mill kir ta IIIIM �..5 :: 11. X 35 $39 al rail a 1' 11111111111 NON MN VIM Oil ll lll�n■44i:;::��■11Wi:,NiN kat, y�y',r�'S Answer eldewheie ea th(a page. HORSIN' AROUND -Stephan J. Spudic, Jr„ quit his job, bought and saddled a six-year-old horse named "Rusty," whistled to his dog, "Frisco," and headed for Los Angeles with a bedroll. He's averaged 32 miles a day. HHARN NT JokzQeU. No treasure on earth is as valuable as a simple lump of soil. It is the very core of life from which all organisms emerge, and it is the basis for the prosperity of all nations, writes Georges Maheux in "Farm Progress". A mass of sand or clay, min- eral fragments, scraps of plant and animal matter all bound to- gether, a lump of soil absorbs water and solar energy and har- bors a swarm of living things. In this minute laboratory, the very leaven of life is evolved. A tiny seed finds in it the heat and moisture necessary for store- house Here, t00 germination. , a i5 S house of food; assimilable ele- ments fromwhich rootlets de- rive nourishment that is passed along to stems, leaves and fruit. All this from a simple Pump of soil! However, the soil can only give forth what it possesses. If rich in nutritive elements, it can produce an abundance of food for man and beast; lacking such reserves, it can only grow weak plants and poor crops. a 4 4' Here is where Science inter- venes. It advises improved me- thods of tillage. With chemical fertilizers it adds to the soil re- quired quantities of the food it lacks, It has even developed "custom made" seeds, brim full of strength and vitality, which enclose all the desirable charac- teristics of species, variety, pro- ductivity, early maturity, rapidi- ty of growth and resistance to disease. Science expands the wonders of the soil, thereby in- creasing harvests and improv- ing the quality of agricultural products. 4' 4, Picking up a bit of soil, the farmer runs it through his fin- gers to feel its texture, its body, its resiliency. He sniffs at it and all but tastes it. This handful of earth symbolizes the myriads of others that make up his fields, his vegetable garden and his orchard. He can well lift his eyes heavenward in thanks- giving. Let him be thankful al- so for the discoveries of Science which multiply a hundrefold the results of his labor. • +) * Flowers are modern farming's most beautiful cash crop They are also the most delicate. Com- mercially grown flowers re- quire devoted attention from the time they are first set until the blooms are harvested. ✓ 0 41 One of the problems faced by growers is selecting the right time to move young plants from the greenhouse where, as the. season advances, they may re- ceive too much heat for proper development. If set outdoors too early, however, they are exposed to wide fluctuations in tempera- ture and moisture conditions. * 4 * Bill Kenyon, who has a Iarge chrysanthemum and carnation nursery in Burnaby, B.C., be lieves he has found the answer to this problem in the use of poythene-roofed shelters. It is the plastic film widely used in the packaging of vegetables. * This spring, Kenyon used wide sheets of the film as a roofing material for two large frame structures which were left open on all sides to allow free circula- tion of air. Under these canopy - like covers he set out about 4,000 square feet of mum and carna- tion seedlings. The results havee been en- couraging. Kenyon reports a 100 per cent increase in growth compared with what could have been expected had the plants been growing unprotected from the elements or in conventional greenhouses. This is the first season he has atempted to grow carnations out-of-doors, a n d they have done well under the plastic cover. 41 0 A Quality of the mums is bet. ter too, he says. When grown outside, the stems usually be- come hard and woody, but un- der the plastic they have retain- ed a desirable softness. With the new shelters, Kenyon figures that he will be able to produce and market flowers at least a month longer than previously. Big advantages of the plastic roofs are in permitting greater control of soil moisture and m protecting the plants on cold nights. One surprise frost early this year, for example, covered the ground outside, coated the underside of the polythene roof, but did not touch the growing area underneath - the poly- thene had acted as a barrier which retarded loss of ground heat by radiation. Although agriculture remains Canada's most important pri- mary industry, only 15 per cent of the total labor force now is directly employed on the farms. About "those Crazy Marx Brothers Groucho Marx, explains his brother Harpo, is infatuated with words. "Groucho," he says, "does not regard words the way the rest of us do. He looks at them upside down, backwards, from the middle out to the end, and from the end back to the middle. Next he drops them in a mental Mixmaster, and studies them some more. Groucho doesn't look for double meanings. He looks for quadruple meanings. And usually finds them." One day an officious lady at the Brown Derby in Hollywood pushed a waiter aside, leveled a finger at Groucho, and demand- ed, "Are you Harpo Marx?" Groucho raised an eyebrow and replied, "No. Are you?" An elderly book clerk in Hol- lywood is still suffering from the shock sustained when Grou- cho entered her shop and in- quired blandly, "Have you some- thing obscene for a seven-year- old girl?" Groucho is said to net over $4000 a week these days with his radio and television chores, but there was a time when all four Marx brothers together had a difficult job keeping the wolf away from the door. When traveling from one town to an- other their mother, Minnie Marx, dressed them up in short pants and Buster Brown collars so they could ride for half fare. Once, when a harassed conductor in- formed Mrs, Marx that her "lit- tle boys" were smoking cigars, chasing girls, and playing poker in the coach ahead, she beamed at tum and confided, "They grow so fast." Al Shean, famous as the part- ner of Mr, Gallagher, was also the man responsible for making Harpo Marx a silent comedian, Shean scripted the first vaude- ville act for the then -unknown Marx Brothers, and inadvert- ently forgot to write in a part for Harpo. When Harpo indig- nantly called the omission to his attention, Shean hastily explain- ed, "I did it on purpose. I want you to play in pantomime. I've got a feeling you'll be terrific." Mr. Shean didn't know how right he was! Incidentally, one of the first towns to see the new Marx Brothers turn was Wauke- gan. In the orchestra pit, a kid named Kubelsky played the fiddle, and doubled up with laughter every time Groucho opened his mouth. Today, some thirty years later, Kubelsky is still laughing at Groucho. Now, however, he is known as Jack Benny. Government transfer pay- ments - that is, money collect- ed by taxation and then paid out to the public in the form of family allowances, old age pensions, welfare payments, etc. - amounted in 1954 to 32,141 million, as compared to $229 million in 1939. DAY sum LESSON 11. Barclay Warren B.A., Bjll. New Respect for God's Law Ezekiel 20:19-20; Nehemiah 9:1-3; 10:33, 35, 37, 39 Memory Selection: 1 am thin Lord your God; walk In my statutes, , and . keep „my . judg- ments, and do them. Ezekiel 20:19. Under the leadership of Ne- hemiah the wall of Jerusalem was speedily built. It was done in fifty-two days. Less than a week later the people assembled "as one man" in the square be- fore the Water Gate and call. ed upon Ezra to bring the book of the law of God. It was an op- portune time for religious in- ' terest had been quickened by the manifest help of God in the swift building of the wall, and by the joyous celebration at its dedication. Ezra stood upon a pulpit (or high platform) of wood, which they had made for the purpose, Beside him stood six helpers on his right hand and seven on his left. From early morn until noon the law was read and expounded The people then realized how neg- lectful they had been of the law. They wept. They were sorry, But Ezra told them not to mourn but to go forth with joy and send something good to the poor, The reading on the next day reminded them of the feast of the tabernacles. They proceeded to observe it with great toy. Later came the day al mourn- ing for their sins. They entered into a covenant to observe God's commandments, When Nehemiah returned further 5 re - a c . form were introduced e dinter. marriages with foreign women was stopped and other abuses ceased. At this point Old Testa- ment history ends. The preaching of the moral law still produces sorrow for sin, In the Scotland crusade Billy Graham preached a series an the Ten Commandments. The ceremonial law has been fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. But the moral law is binding still. It is still sinful to steal, murder, commit adultery and bear false witness. This generation needs to be remind- ed of the sinfulness of sin. We must respect God's law Upsidedown to Pr'even• Peeking ®Ui©..;i3C)U. l'©©Ci 1 El © 13111221 U©® © olil.t-®©©n glilubiaCislars ©©L IEMIEi t, s L I ©Q©© :.1- ml��(pIEV EJ a©©©© ,. , 3 1119119141311191191413�cro t xr Ori© „ r. ``�©�o© d©�©x'.10 ©©0 © � ®n ° N ' r1�' 0000 a a v » 9 NO SHELL GAME - The turtle's name. WAS Henry, but now it's Henrietta, since "he" laid those two eggs. Some firemen made her their mascot when they found her in front of the fire house, run over by an auto. SUSPENSE - Kenneth Collins, six months old holds his breath as he Waits for "Posies'' pet skunk of family, to train her artillery elsewhere. Adopted by "Susie" and her kittens, the baby woods pussy has so far caused not one scent's worth of trouble: