"Sometimes the monkey goes out for a stroll on the beach."

This story from the August 12, 1894 Brooklyn Daily Eagle explains why so few barber shops these days have pet monkeys. An excerpt:

“A chief attraction of the barber shop attached to Schillinger’s hotel on Rockaway Beach is a monkey, which the barber plays with in the absence of faces to scrape or hair to cut. Sometimes the monkey goes out for a stroll on the beach. Yesterday afternoon he was peregrinating when little Ellen Mason of Allen street and Railroad avenue, who was also out for a stroll, happened to meet him. The child became frightened, and ran with the monkey in hot pursuit. In a playful way the monkey perched on one of Ellen’s arms and bit a good piece out of it. The child screamed, which had the effect of attracting the barber’s attention, who grabbed the miscreant by the tail as he was meditating another assault. The child was carried home and her wound bandaged.

Ellen’s father last night made application to Justice Smith for a warrant to shoot the monkey. It was granted.”