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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 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 he lived as one of Mr. Humphries' household. working as a house - boy. When iVir. Humphries came home tired at the end of the day Philip would unlace and take off 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 house. Like all servants, Philip look- ed forward to -his leisure hours, when he was able to sit back and enjoy a smoke and a drink. Sometimes. he decided to go for a ride on the tricycle that had been bought for him. Philip enjoyed .all forms of smoking. If he was offered an open cigarette case and a box of matches he would carefully take a cigarette and put it be- tween his ilps, lighting it with a match taken from the box. He would then puff away at ' the cigarette with obvious en- joyment, knocking off the ash every now and again, and fin- 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 po- lite to fill his 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 shooed 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! In 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 in one draught, if- supplied with a wine ,glass he would despatch his favourite drink in more genteel ma nn 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 hii tricycle with him, 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 some 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 heremained one of the best known personalities at Edinburgh Zoo until his death, he gradually lost some of !lis 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 as houseboys and companions are not so rare as one 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 tending 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 hut! 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. "All dayhe 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 comnleted, 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 half higher, CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 50. Timber tree 1, Without sugar 51.„. Climbing 4, notatingperennial niece 52, Terminal 53. Diurese 7. nubile storehouse 12. Golf • instructor 13. Wing 14. Baseball teams 15. 'rake ui weapons 16. Foreign 18. Cables 20, Pulled apart 21. Of an his- torical period 82, The pineapple 23 Before (prefix) 26,.26,.01clible bird 28 The soft palate 20 Sink graduo ly 4 42, Articles of belief 3S, Fortner Prime ltftn ist er 84, French revolutionist 85, 29 hours 3E, Entrance 38. Detn.onstri (fN'o pronoun Utilizer •M1s, Itai.ian aoulrlt or 48. rpeoi.f» 4'4 glower (rttt(8,) 48, Ow d!h Coft Pei.-Seed- twp( tnes•hies DOWN 1. Do without 2. Mistake 3. Solidly 4. Explosive , devices 5, Malt liquor 6. Man's name 7, Etcher S. Weary 9. Black bird 10. writing implement 11. Compass point 17. Age 10. Puff up 22. American poet 23. States of excessive fullness 24. Deep wagon track 25, Type squares in Crete 27. Enjoyment 46. Metal 29. Growing out 30. Doleful 31. Greek letter 32. Make lace 34. Optical illusion 37, Diamond State (ab.) 3D. Aromatic seed 40. A tenth 41. On 42. Make a loan 93. Salt 44, Three (prefix) 45. Mountain ®®®13®®� •;1''.�x�,;®®®®® 111111111111111111111111112i111111111111111 ®■■1111®I11®®®111111■ iiillill111111111a20 ®®• .E tliniiii1111111111111V111111111111111111 iiii®®111111111A!®®®11®®� C$ik': 11��ii® is4111111111111111111 v 6111111111111111! 50 11 aimmuut.; 40 4nswetr elSewbere on th#a 'put e, 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. TllIFN FRONT 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". * 4: * A mass of sand or clay, min- eral fragments, scraps of plant and animal matter all bound to- gether, a lump of soilabsorbs, water` and' solar energy and her.: 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 germination. Here, too, is a store- house of food; assimilable ele- ments from which rootlets de- rive nourishment that is passed along to stem's, leaves and fruit. All this from a wimple lump 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. 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. * * * 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. * * One of the problems faced by growers is selecting the right tithe 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 fluetlilations in tempera- ture emper a-ture and moisture conditions. * * * Dill Kenyon, Who has a large chrysanthemunt 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. * * . 4: This spring, Kenyon used wide sheets of the film as a roofing material for two large frame structures whichwere 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 have 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. * * 4: 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. * 4: * Big advantages of the plastic roofs are in permitting greater control of soil moisture and in 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 say's; "does not regard words the way the rest of us do. He looks at thein 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 ah 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 sothey 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 him 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 than paid out to the public in the form of family allowances, old age pensions, welfare payments, etc. - amounted in 1954 to $2,141 million, as compared to $229 million in 1939. ft, Barclay Warren B.A., B.J), New Respect for God's Law Ezekiel 20:19-20; Nehemiah 9:1-3; 10:32, 35, 37, 39 Memory Selection: ]! am the 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 joy. Later came the day of mourn- ing for their sins. They entered into a covenant to observe God's commandments. When Nehemiah returned further re- forms were introduced Inter- 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 on the Ten Commandments. The ceremonial law has been fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. But the moral lave= 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 Oxisldedowi to Pvevem Peeking 3 3 S fl N 3��'3 Nbl I fa,SY N 13 SoLv. ©O0 3 -t 000i3 1 i S 'tab 3 3doB IN Not O S S w v 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 "Isosie," 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.