en it was
only a few days old and had reared it in place of a baby which had just
died. She was a low type of woman, even for an African savage, but the
maternal instinct was strong enough to make her grieve for little
Consul, as the captain christened him. The monkey grieved over the
separation, too, but sailors make much of animals and he soon became
reconciled to it.

"Thousands of people saw him after I purchased him, and you can judge of
the reputation he attained when I tell you that I was getting fifteen
hundred dollars a week for him in Berlin when he died, and he was booked
for the entire season at that price. People had seen him eat with a
knife and fork, smoke a cigar, use a typewriter and do all of the stunts
which simply aped humanity, but you had to live with the little beast to
appreciate how intensely human he was. Everybody connected with the show
loved him, and when I wanted to find any one of the employees who was
off duty, or not in his proper place, I always went first to Consul's
cage and I was pretty sure to locate him. That monkey was never still,
and the things he would do and the pranks he would play off his own bat
were more amusing than any of the things he had been taught.

"When he was in company he was as well mannered as most men, but, of
course, he had his prejudices and had to be watched. His special
aversion was a negro, which is strange when you consider his early
associations, and if one came around when he was loose he was apt to
attack him. We had to consider that in traveling, for Consul always
stopped at the hotels with his trainer and sat about the lobbies,
smoking his cigar like any other guest, but if there were negro servants
about, we had to be very careful not to let them come near him.

"He had the reasoning power of a child of ten years old; he was patient
when anything was wrong and we had to do disagreeable things to him,
appreciating that it was for his benefit. Only once did we have to use
force, when it was necessary to pull a tooth, and I am glad it wasn't
oftener, for it took seven men to control him and they thought they had
done a day's work when we finished. The last time he went abroad he was
the life of the ship, but he pretty nearly killed himself. The doctor
prescribed a cough medicine for him and Consul liked it so well that he
got up in the night, after his trainer had gone to sleep, opened the
valise in which it was kept and emptied the bottle. I guess