"The curiosity was bagged for further use in the dime show."

Manhattan’s Grace Church has had some unusual events in its storied history, but the Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, had a strange one of its own in 1887. On February 6 of that year, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reprinted the following story about the house of worship from the Providence Journal:

“One of the early occupants of Grace Church on Sunday afternoon fit in in an unusual and surprising way, although common to its kind. When the janitor had about prepared the house of worship for the reception of the rector and the congregation he was startled by something aloft–a something that made his eyes open and caused wonder in his mind. There was a wide range, and a most propitious one, for the fancy of a sprightly monkey up in the high cornices, arches and the extensive organ loft that mark the architectural beauties of the edifice. The janitor was in a quandary. It was about church time, just before 10:30, when the morning service is celebrated by Rev. Dr. Greer.

The lively brute would not ‘come down,’ as he was commanded, and he took advantage of his short spell of liberty. He swung from one arch to the next, and when his would be captor had bestirred himself and succeeded to frightening the fugitive from one place to another, a quick, silent contemplation of the scene below would follow. The janitor grew angry as the minutes flew by and the time was approaching for the hour of worship. Then he bethought himself of the police, and he resolved to call for an officer. That was done and more than one came. That janitor was fully confident that it would take more men and a good deal of coaxing to rid the church of the unwelcome visitor before Dr. Greer opened morning prayer.

"Constable Handy proposed that he should try his skill at marksmanship right in Grace Church and with the elusive monkey for a target, but the police officers suggested cookies and coaxing."

The fugitive curiosity stayed on high; he’d swing this way and that by his prehensile tail, and jumped from one place to another, always going in the direction where least expected, and usually going higher up when the officers expected him to come down. His antics were well calculated to vex all his pursuers, and it was thought that every plan, of which the officers had but one or two, was useless. Constable Handy proposed that he should try his skill at marksmanship right in Grace Church and with the elusive monkey for a target, but the police officers suggested cookies and coaxing. No shooting was done and no bloodshed was caused. Then the crowd of the pursuers took up a retreat and the fugitive monkey swooped down from a lofty pier in a rectangular course and seemed to seek a closer inspection of the operations of the police. The monkey came down closer and closer, and finally, by strategy and an adroit movement of the whole force of captors moving in a semi circle, the curiosity was bagged for further use in the dime show. It was an exciting hunt, and it is admitted by all the pursuing party that the unwelcome visitor at the Grace Church just slightly escaped being present at divine service, when doubtless he would have caused great consternation in the congregation, if he did not disperse the whole gathering.”