OCR Text |
Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! "The Beast in the Glass Room" HELLO, EVERYBODY: Nina C. Marbourg of New York city tells 'today's yarn and it's a pip of a story, too. You know, Nina says she went to see that picture, "King Kong," that was playing play-ing in the movie houses a few years ago, and terrifying as it was, Nina took it without a single shudder. It didn't make much of an impression on her because well Nina claims she had a tussle with a real King Kong in the flesh back in the summer of 1908. And after that, no mere picture of the brute was going to scare her. I'll have to admit, and so will Nina, that King Kong grew quite a bit in the years between 1908 and the showing of that picture. The King Kong in the movies was a great, ape-like creature about a quarter of a mile tall big enough to hold an ordinary human in the palm of his hand. Nothing like that ever existed in real life, as far as I know, and I've seen all the big ones, from Jess Willard to Primo Camera and Man Mountain Dean. Nina's King Kong came about up to her chin, she says, but he was just as hairy and just as bestial as the big brute that hopped out onto the screen from that strip of Hollywood celluloid. And Nina was locked up with him in a glass room! Chimpanzee Scheduled to Pose for Pictures. It all came about over a matter of some photographs. Nina had a joD, at that time,, that made it necessary for her to take pictures of the latest thing in chimpanzees. The chimp was in the Bronx zoo, and Nina made arrangements with his keeper to have the animal pose for her. When she got to the zoo the obliging keeper brought the brute out into a big:, glass-enclosed room where the light was ideal for . photography. The animal shook hands with Nina, and she says that's the first time she'd ever met a chimpanzee socially. Then the keeper began putting him through his tricks while Nina took shots with her camera. She snapped him posing at a table, on a bicycle, and going through all his various stunts. She got all the pictures she wanted but one, and then the keeper realized that he had forgotten to bring the properties needed for that picture the chimp's roller skates. "Just a minute," he said. "I'll go and get them." He went out of the room, closing the door behind him. Nina heard the spring latch click, but she thought nothing of it at the time. Several seconds passed "His other hand went to my hair and began to shake my head from side to side." while the chimp wandered around the room. But suddenly he turned and began scrutinizing Nina with his beady little eyes and at that moment she realized she was locked in a room with a chimpanzee, and no telling what the animal might take a notion to do. As a matter of fact, the animal seemed to be taking some sort of a notion right then. He was advancing toward Nina at a slow, shambling sham-bling gait, his little eyes leering straight into hers. "I remembered," she says, "that animals were supposed to be afraid of you if you looked them straight in the eye. I looked steadily at this one, but still he came on. Chimp Draws Closer Despite Steady Stare. "Closer and closer he came, and still I held his eyes with mine. The nearer he came the more panicky I grew. All I could think of to say was a silly, 'Nicy monkey nice monkey!' Presently he was within a few feet of me. They say that a ' drowning person reviews his whole life in his last few seconds. All I could think of were the horrors of Poe's tale, 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' and all the other dreadful stories I had ever heard of apes at large. "The Chimpanzee took another step forward, raised one great, hairy arm, and let his hand drop on my shoulder. His other band went to my hair and began to shake my head from side to side. It was before the days of bobbed hair, and mine was long. Hairpins fell tinkling on the cement floor, and this seemed to delight the brute. He bared his teeth in a horrible grin, took a firmer grip and shook harder." More hairpins fell from Nina's hair. The chimpanzee began jumping up and down, in front of her, pulling her head down and shoving it back. Then, to Nina's terror, his other hand came up. It caressed her cheek, then slipped down to her neck and she felt the animal's short, powerful fingers tightening on her throat! Chimp Hears the Sound of His Keeper's Footsteps. Nina held her breath. She felt pretty certain then that the end had come. "He leered up horribly at me with his glittering little eyes," she says, "and then gave my head a fearful shake that nearly threw me gS balance. Then, suddenly, he stood perfectly still. His thick lips began to quiver. He snarled, whined and ground his teeth. And while I was wondering what was coming next, the door opened. His ears had been quicker than mine. The keeper had arrived and spoiled his fun." But the keeper didn't see any fun in the situation. He stood in the doorway, his eyes bulging. "Don't move," he whispered. "For God's sake, don't move!" With that, the chimpanzee gave Nina's head one more fearful shake, screamed frightfully, and struck Nina in the chest a blow that sent her reeling against the wall. Then, like the crack of a whip, the keeper's voice rang out. He barked a curt order, and suddenly the beast became the meek, docile exhibition monkey he had been before the keeper left the room. Nina didn't take any more pictures that day. When the chimp had been put back in his cage, the keeper came back, drew her to one side, and began talking nervously. "I should have known better than to leave you along with that animal," he said. "It's a wonder you weren't killed. Chimps are queer with strangers, and especially with women. Look here, I hope you don't say anything about this. Because if it ever gets out, I'll lose my job." So Nina kept quiet about it for a long time. Now it doesn't matter, because the keeper isn't working at the zoo any more, so Nina is passing the yarn along to us. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |