AT THE SIGN OF THE BLUE MOON

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 17 January 1925, Page 32

AT THE SIGN OF THE BLUE MOON

STRANGE INCIDENT AT ZOO

(By D. B. WYNDHAM LEWIS, in the

"Daily Mail.") "If civilisation," observes a conternporarv thinker whose writings liave exercised more influence over the more rerious and thoughtful inhabitants of Great Britain than those ot any, perhaps, since Ruskin, "if civilisation had done nothing else for Tarzan of the Apes, it had to some extent taught him to crave t»e society of his own kind, and to feel with genuine pleasure the congenial warmth of comradeship." They have a peculiar significance in j view <">f an extraordinary incident which recent.lv happene<l at the Zoo. I propose to relate tho facts quite briefly and in a sober and dignified manner. It must have Ibeen between live and | half-past on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 22, that a short, bearded j gentleman of sturdy build, wearing a i silk hat. passed through the gates of the Zoological Gardens leading into the I Outer Circle of Regent's Park. The pate-keeper, taking him to he a Fellow, saluted him, as did two other keepers and an old lady, who curtsied low with the customary'respect shown by frequenters of the Zoo to members of that learned body whose zoological labours and deliberations have ever been signalised, 'by respectability and true piety. The short'gentleman, who is said to have responded to these salutes by a genial waggle of the hand, passed out ! of the Zoo'in the dusk and was -ecu to hail a taxi-cab. It was not wtil about half an hour later that the Assistant sub-Warden of the Anthropoid Apes discovered tho Orang Outang to ho missing from his residence, which is situated near the Outer Circle gate. Tho cage, indeed, was occupied, but by a retired Professor of Zoology, whose observations when offered a (banana, however interesting, are beyond the scope of this inquiry. J am in the fortunate position of being able to give some connected account of the subsequent movements of the supposed Fellow of the Zoological Society. The taxi-cab driver, a Mr. Henry William Wamble, assures mc that he saw nothing extraordinary in his fare, and indeed took him for Sir Montague (Montfaueon, the popular financial baronet and politician. The supposed Sir Montague, asked where he wished to be driven, uttered guttcral sounds, which tho driver thought he understood; and accordingly lie drove at once by way of Baker street, Regent Street, and Trafalgar Square, to the [Members' Entrance of the House of Commons. "Did you stop anywhere on the way?" 1 asked Mr. Wamble. "Yes," said Mr. Wamble. "I stopped on Sir Montague rapping 'ard at the window, at two greengrocers' shops-. He got out quickly, grabbed some nuts and a few bananas, and nipped into my cab again, signalling to mc to drive on at once." "That did not seem strange to you?" I asked. Mr. Wairible considered. "Xo, sir," he said. "I thought the gentleman was an M.F." On arrival at the House Mr. Wnmhle's faro appears to have entered with confidence, courteously returning the policeman's salute by putting iiis fingers to his nose, and to have taken his scat below the Gangway. I am unfortunately unable to state the party to which he attached himself, and I am credibly informed thnt lie voted twice, nnd once interrupted a Ministerial speech by observing in a firm voice, "Grrhjkj!" after which he cracked a nut and fell instantly asleep. "\ou noticed nothing queer?" I paid lo my informant, a rising young M.P"Xothing," said the M.P., opening his j eyes. "How was I to know your friend was a gorilla? Ho had a silk hat. I thought he was " lie mentioned a well-known name. 1 find that after an hour in the House the member of the Zoo took another taxieab and drove to a Fabian meeting, where his habit of cracking nuts and throwing tho shells at the chairman aroused no curiosity; several prominent vegetarians present, indeed, mistaking him for Mr. Wenceslas Wheeble, whose enthusiasm for rational foods is well known. On leaving he appears to have driven to Burlington House, where he addressed the Royal Society in a language which Professor Dogbody (whom I met yesterday) assures mc he believed to bo German.

I asked the usual question. The Professor shook his head.

"He swarmed up a pillar and gibbered at the president, certainly," said Professor Dogbody. "But I cannot see how that can be regarded as any departure from the normal behaviour of a

distinguished scicntilic man. Hrrm! It is also true," boomed Professor Dogbody through his whiskers, "that our visitor —whom I believe to be Dr. Uggrrj, though I did not catch the name distinctly—swung twice from the central chandelier nnd turned a number of handsprings during the course of his address. "Is that quite usual? I mean, docs it not show an originality which one might almost call —cr —eccentricity '!" "My friend Dumbwbistlc," said Professor Dogbody coldly, "is Pobblethvraite Professor of Comparative Cosmogony and Gudgeon Prizeman. My friend Dumbwhistle is one of the most prehensile scholars in England, and not only constantly picks up such articles as eggs, hats, and paper-clips with his toes, but occasionally walks on allfours. Is this eccentricity?"

"No, no," I said warmly, wringing the Professor's hand and going away. "Certainly not."

The subsequent adventures of the visitor from the Zoo may be very shortly summarised. His appearance for a few moments at a Liberal party reception in Westminster occasioned no comment. His last visit was in Chelsea, where he seems to have recited to a rapt studio a poem in free verse beginning: — Grrrk? X'jj ukrjes wczkrj qkrrcz Grrout ik snzjkrgrft ... He was assumed to be a famous Czecho-Slovak Spasmist poet, and many people in Chelsea thought him even more wonderful than the *•*. I am told that he broke off suddenly with a roar of fury and rushed out of tho window, down the Waterpipe, into tho street, into a tasicab, and back to the Zoo where his delight at being _monrational companions once more was such that he immediately ate his silk hat and tbe current copy of tbe "DelpMiReview," winch is supplied weekly to all the Anthropoids. ll e j s now (go j am informed! the happießt resident of the N.W. district—counting Hampstead and Finchley.

A etrange incident, is it not? Indeed, yes.