The Monkey and the Mirror.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 3 June 1890, Page 3

The Monkey and the Mirror.

If any one of a biological turn »f Uiind wauts to have a large chunk of pure white fun, he ought to go and watch the monkeys in the Zoo. The anonkey's powers of reasoniug are ".limited, but he uses what brains Nature gave him for all there is in 'them. A gentleman recently passed in an ordinary 5 cent mirror with a tiufoil back. It fell to th« lot of a long tailed monkey with ecru points and watt<'au pleats around his ours. He looked in and got mad. It was the first time he had ever seen him self, and the imagined rival was bo handsome that a pang of involuntary jealousy shot through his quad • rumanoua bosom. He wunt on a hunt. Holding the glass very still, he would suddenly jerk it down and look for the rival. No rival. Then he held the glass still aud aud ducked as quickly. The rival ducked as quickly as he did. Then he grew cunning. Ha would peep slyly. The glass was allowed to glide imperceptibly to one side. It waß of avail. Then the monkey reached one of his hairy paws stealthily up to the glass and made a sudden snatch behind it. No game. That monkey brain was doing great work. It was a Napoleanic monkey whe was conspiring agaiusi the apparition. It was evident that the monkey in the glass was an active dodger; that he couldn't be caught by activity. He must be trapped by strategy. Placing the glass on "the floor of the cage, the monkey pressed it firmly to be sure nothing womd he beneath it. Then he looked ; there was the other chap as large as life, and as impudent o.a ever. He pointed a linger, so did the other ; No. 1 grinned, chattel ed, and frowned, like wise did No. 1. It was of no use. It Was as if a human being vrere confronted with indisputable evidence of the existence of a fourth dimension in space, and were trying to men ally grasp a conception of its exact significance. But the ecru philosopher never said surrender. AHer his grey matter had rested a bit lie picked up the glas* and looked again. There was that same o d monkey, looking very thonghtfu and morose He held him a prisoner against his stomach and carefully picked the tinfoil elf the back of the g as-. This did not re real the pr;s ner. But he was equal to the emergency. Th«t infernal uionkcy, he argued, was evidently between the back and the front of the glass. He might be flatter than a pancake, but, there he was. A long black finger worked around to the rer.r of the enoujy. A vicious scratch with a grimy fingernail That fetched him. The monkey showed up with a gush straight a«ross the nose. Another ! The pit of his stomach was goue. All four

fingers at ouce. That monkey looked like Kiirain after the thirtysecond round. He had him. In leas than n ininuto that monkey who had so foolishly in v lied destruction was annihilated. The ecru monkey hid what was left of the mirror iii straw and went off in triumph to hang from the perch by the tip of his gendarme blue tail. — Enchamje--