AN APE THAT MAY TALK

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1617, 25 February 1903, Page 20

AN APE THAT MAY TALK

Mr F. C. Bostoek is the owner of the largest collection of wild animals in tho United States. The chimpanzee is an animal of such phenomenal accomplishments that Mr Bostoek has already refused to take £4OOO -for it. It plays the piano, can use the typewriter, and responds to the command of Captain Delancior, its discoverer and teacher. But- tlu-se things pale beside the. ambitions of its owner, who speaks hopefully of tho possibility of that chimpanzee talking before it is very much older. “At present,”- remarked Mr Bostoek to an “Express” correspondent, “it. utters a number of guttural sounds which are intelligible toNhose of us who have been with it almost the whole of tlie time of its captivity.” A German surgeon, at the Buffalo Exposition, who took a great interest in mutes, saw the animal, which, he declared, responded to- certain sounds. He was absolutely he could make it speak as the res*uit of an operation upon one of the ligaments of the tongue. German scientists are confident of success—the views of the chimpanzee have been obtained.