November 2, 1903

Several Vassar students were at lunch at Mrs. Brittan’s boarding house on Grand Avenue when their landlady, answering the doorbell, discovered a large, grey, tailless monkey on her veranda. After several attempts by the students failed to chase the monkey away—including, according to The New York Times, a “flying wedge formation”—Mrs. Brittan called the police.

A Poughkeepsie saloon keeper, John Vanderburgh, arrived on the scene to reclaim his pet, which he’d thought was on its way to the country under the care of his father. The monkey, however, was now atop Mrs. Brittan’s chimney. A neighbor, Mrs. Charles Nixon, coaxed the monkey down to an upstairs window with a piece of cake and, seizing its leg, held it until the owner could secure it.

The students were late for their afternoon recitations.

—The New York Times