Jack, the Baboon!

Howdy y'all!

I hope February is treating you kindly. Mine was off to a bumpy start. But hey, it can only get better! Right?

Anyhow, like most historical authors, we are always digging into the past, gathering all kinds of interesting tidbits. And do I have an interesting tidbit to share today!

This piece takes place my side of the globe. I might never use it in a story, but it's definitely fascinating!

Jack was a baboon that worked on the railway system in South Africa for 9 years without ever making a single mistake!

James Wide worked for the Cape Town — Port Authority Railway service, and sounded like quite the daredevil. He earned the moniker Jumper for he had the habit (dangerous indeed) to jump from one railway car to the other, even when the trains were moving. One fateful day in the late 1870s he misjudged his jump and fell under the moving train. He lost both his legs from the knees down.

Fortunately James Wide survived, although his life was changed forever. He made himself two new legs out of wooden pegs and took a job at the Uitenhage station as a signalman, with a self-made wooden trolley, he managed to get around. Only he needed help.

One day James went to the marketplace in Uitenhage... and met Jack. Soon followed perhaps one of the oddest friendships of the time. James bought Jack after witnessing the baboon driving an oxcart. Apparently one of the the first things he trained Jack to do was push him to and from work in a small trolley.

https://www.vintag.es/2020/09/jack-the-baboon.html

But Jack was destined to do more... James soon taught his furry friend how to operate the signal levers. When the railway authorities were informed by a concerned passenger that a baboon was operating the levers, a superintendent was sent to fire James. Instead, he tested the baboon's capabilities. The superintendent later wrote that Jack knew the signal whistles as well as he did.

It's reported that Jack received an official employment number, paid 20 cents a day and half a bottle of beer weekly. Sadly, Jack passed away in 1890, after developing tuberculosis.

His skull is kept at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, South Africa.

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