The Speech of Monkeys

It is cruel, absolutely cruel, to keep these little creatures confined in solitude and deny them the simple pleasure they find in playing with a bell, ball or marbles; and besides this, a trifling outlay in this way will very much prolong their lives. A monkey is always happy if he has something to play with and plenty to eat. [Sidenote: NELLIE WITH THE MATCH-BOX] I do not know of any investment of mine which ever yielded such a great return in pleasure as one little pocket match-safe which cost me twenty-five cents, and which I gave to Nellie one evening to play with. I had put into it a small key to make it rattle, and also some bits of candy. She rattled the box, and found some pleasure in the noise it made. I showed her a few times how to press the spring in order to open it, but her little black fingers were not strong enough to release the spring and make the lid fly open. However, she caught the idea, and knew that the spring was the secret which held it; and when she found that she could not open it with her fingers, she tried it with her teeth. Failing in this, she turned to the wall, and standing upright on the top of her cage, she took the box in both hands and struck the spring against the wall until the lid flew open.