MONKEY ATTACKS A CHILD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7808, 12 September 1903, Page 4

MONKEY ATTACKS A CHILD.

L ~ -_» . ► UNFORTUNATE RESULTS OE A ; PASSION EOR SWEETS. Some time ago Frederick Yorke, a re--1 servist, brought home to Annott Street, ■ "Southwark, from Las Palmas, a ring-tailed - monkey? v v ' The other day an- eighteen-months'-old , child, named Nourse, carrying some sweets, and accompanied by a girl, was passing • down- Arjiott Stieet, when the monkey, ► which was sitting on a woman's shoulder in ► tbe doorway of Yorke's house, jumped down ' and went for the sweets. -, According to Mr Nourse, a carman, who sued the monkey's owner in the County Court', th<e. monkey Mocked the child doWn, scratched one of its arms, and bit it through ,the nose and lip. ' A woman rescued the infant, but the monkey again attacked it. The little one was /taken- to Guy's Hospital, and its wounds afterwards healed. The father, however, said it still suffered from nervous shock. Yorke denied that his monkey did any- ■ thing but hold the child's arm with one i " hand," and take the sweets, which had at- ; traded it, with the other. In' doing that t it miglit have slightly scratched the child's arm. But for the baby straying into the pasL sage of the house, the reservist said, the " incident would probably not have happened . at aIL [ • The monkey ho described as docile and well-behaved. During the cold weather it 1 slept with him, and its constant playmate • was a child of three. . . ' In ordering Yorke to pay £1 and costs Judge" Addison said that people who kept j j lions, tigers, monkeys " and other out-of-the-way animals," did so at their own risk. 3 It was* not necessary to prove, as in the _ case of cats and dogs, that their pets were ' vicious. : '