MONKEYS AT LARGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 95, 23 April 1930, Page 6

MONKEYS AT LARGE

DAY OUT IN CAMDEN TOWN. TRICKS BEHIND A FOG SCREEN. Camden Town had an exciting time a few weeks ago. Ten monkeys escaped from an animal dealer’s shop and spent the afternoon in freedom. Camden Town would not have minded if the monkeys had stayed on the roofs instead of popping down chimneys. Soon the runaways looked like ten little black boys. Their first visit was to a fish-curing yard, and as it chanced to be the workmen’s luncheon interval the monkeys had a good meal. When the men returned a chase began. Half the robber gang was captured, but the other half escaped up drainpipes and over roofs. Now they began to play a lovelj game. You go down a chimney, and if the old lady by the fi.3 shriel-M you count one. If she faints you count two. If she rushes out of the house calling police! you count three.

Up and down Camden Town the monkeys played this new and original game. Every room they entered was spoiled by the soot they brought rith them. People were seen climbing ladders in order to cover their chimneypots; but many chimneys were too high for this, and the monkeys still had plenty of scope for their fun. A dealer in antiques rang up the police to ask for protection. The owner of the monkeys set tempting traps. People were trying to catch the sooty imps in all sorts of ways. But a kindly fog helped thei - to escape a dozen times. When the fog lifted three of the acrobats were rounded up in an empty house. The other two were still roaming the roofs when night fell. They were not mercenary fellows; they would not barter freedom for a banana and a few nuts, and so they gambolled in the moonlight, beautifully free and beautifully black.

Meanwhile Camden Town was wash ing its carpets.