Chapter 20

WhaleTale News

Dear Friends, what if a baboon family regularly steals food from your table? This is the question many Voëlklip & Bettie’s Bay residents are facing. The town’s resident Chacma baboon herd regards an open door or window as an open invitation to pop in. And worst of all, it’s like a hurricane passed through your house when they finally make tracks. The answer is to let them think the king of the jungle is living on your property. Scatter some lion poop around your house, and voila! Mr Baboon starts looking for greener and “safer” pastures.

I remember a jolly tale I once read in a book on the Karoo about Jack, the Signal-man. James Wide, nicknamed “Jumper”, a railroad worker, lost both his legs in a train accident. Three years after Jumper’s accident, he bought a large young baboon called Jack from a farmer at the Uitenhage marketplace. The farmer told Jumper that Jack was captured as a tiny baby and showed extraordinary intelligence. Jack was then acting as a ”voorloper” for the farmers ox-wagon.

Jumper’s cottage was half a mile from the signal-box, and he had found the walk so difficult on two wooden legs that he made himself a lightweight trolley propelled by hand. Jack soon mastered this simple task to push Jumper on the trolley and could lift the trolley on and off the tracks. Jack performed miscellaneous duties for his master with the fidelity of a Man Friday. The baboon worked the lever to set the signals with an imitation of humanity which is as wonderful as it is ludicrous! He puts down the lever, looks up to check if the signal is up, and then gravely watches the train approach.?

Jumper kept an essential key in his signal box. Whenever a driver needs it, he gave four blasts on his whistle, and Jumper trotter out on his crutches and held up the key. Jack watched this performance a few days, then raced out with the key as soon as he heard the four blasts. ? It unlocks the points that enabled the locomotive drivers to reach the coal sheds.

Finally, Jumper was able to entrust the signal levers to the baboon. Jack knew which lever to operate for each train. It was not an intricate system at Uitenhage, but the spectacle of a baboon responding correctly to every train whistle was never forgotten by those who watched. ?

Inevitably, there were complaints from nervous railroad passengers, and the system manager ordered an official investigation. Jack passed the test without a stain on his skills. Furthermore, the railway administration accepted him as a regular employee and put him on their payroll, with his own employment number! His monthly rations mainly consisted of fruits and vegetables, and he thoroughly enjoyed his daily tot of brandy.?

At the cottage, Jack worked the water pump, carried off the rubbish and performed simple tasks in the kitchen. He also acted as a ”watchdog”, admitting friends and frightening tramps out of their wits. Jack always locked the door when he and his master left the cottage.?

Jack, like other pet baboons, contracted tuberculosis and died in 1890. His master was inconsolable! Jumper declared later to a friend that his years with Jack were the happiest of his life. A journalist reported Jacks railroad achievements in an article printed in the Cape Argus newspaper dated April 2nd 1884. Jack worked as an employee for nine years without ever making a mistake.

Next time you raise a glass of Merloo, let’s say cheers to innovative, lion poop scattering Overstrand residents and ”hoera vir die jolly bobbejaan!”.