Jack was a Chacma baboon with some unusual skills. He was purchased by James Wide after Wide saw him driving an oxcart. Wide was a train signalman who had lost his legs after he fell under a train years earlier. Wide taught Jack to push him to and from work on a trolley and to help out with household chores,but much to Wide's surprise Jack also picked up the pattern of the whistles that alerted Wide to change the track and started changing the tracks himself. Eventually word of the baboon reached the railroad authorities and they tested his abilities finding he knew all the signals and which levers to pull. Jack was given an employee number and paid 20 cents per day and a half bottle of beer a week. He continued his work for nine years without a mistake. I wonder if the USPS should start hiring baboon mail carriers?
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