CHAPTER XV
baby gorillas
MY friend accused me of being a social climber because I spent two months trying to get an introduction to Dinah, the baby Gorilla who had come from distant Africa to make her home in our city. I stood before her cage a good four hours after our introduction hobnobbing with the little black princess, who was friendly and permitted me to hold her very human looking hand and stroke her furry head.
She is the third Gorilla that has been brought to America and she seems well contented so far. She loves her keeper, who fondles and indulges her, but cries bitterly when he puts her back in her cage after they have romped together on the cool green grass.
She takes a ride each day in her baby carriage wheeled by her chief attendant. She wears a white silk baby's bonnet and a white coat trimmed with fur and a little fur foot robe to keep her feet warm while on these daily airings.
When she returns she has her dinner served by a special waiter. She is two years old and eats everything. Her dinner consists of soup, hot roast beef and gravy, fresh bread, oranges, apples, pineapples or bananas for dessert. Dinah rolls her brown eyes with pleasure when a banana is given her. I think that it is her favourite fruit.
She takes her soup with a spoon and is learning to handle a knife and fork. She insists on having a napkin.
She is very fond of eggs and eats two for her breakfast every morning. She holds the egg in her hand and after chipping off the end lifts it to her mouth and drinks it.
Dinah takes bread and milk for her supper. She eats it from a bowl with her own silver spoon.
For several months Dinah suffered from that dreaded disease, infantile paralysis, but, thanks to medical science and her wonderful nurse, she has recovered. During her illness she was confined in a large airy room with two little dogs
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| After the New York Zoological Society Bulletin |
| "Dinah," this baby Gorilla, is very proud when her nurse dresses her in her white bonnet and cloak and takes her for an airing in the baby carriage. She is two years old and weighs forty pounds. When full grown, at fourteen years of age, she may tip the scales at five or six hundred pounds. |
Dinah loves children. She climbs on her window-sill and looks longingly at the youngsters. Then she beats her head on the windowpane to attract attention and waves her little hand in her most fetching manner. She has a kind, sweet disposition and is very affectionate to those she is acquainted with.
I am glad to be able to tell you of these pleasant incidents I've witnessed in Gorilla society because the Gorilla has a black reputation. He is known as the largest, fiercest and ugliest of apes. He is feared equally by animals and humans. His voice is peculiar and strikes terror to the bravest heart. It begins with a sharp, short bark, like an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll which resembles the roar of distant thunder.
In appearance he is the nearest approach to man of the apes. He is the only ape who walks erect without being taught and who spends a considerable time on the ground. In bulk he is larger than the average man and has arms and chest of enormous proportions. The face and hands are bare and the head and body covered with grizzly grey hair.
A German trader gives the dimensions of a Gorilla that was shot and photographed in Africa near the equator. It measured sixty-six inches in height and weighed five hundred pounds. It took twelve men to carry it from the jungle.
A Gorilla is full grown at fourteen years.
On account of his independent disposition, the Gorilla usually dies very shortly after being captured. They refuse to eat and die of starvation.
Dinah is the third Gorilla to reach the United States. The other two died within a few days. She was taken when a tiny baby and taught the ways of man while she was too little to resist him. She likes mankind and has a real jolly time with us.
After all, the spirit of God is in even the fiercest of his creatures, but it takes understanding and love to know the spirit.