Monkey see(s), monkey do(es), 1901, 1893

[Neal Whitman]

Now on Visual Thesaurus, by subscription:
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/why-do-we-say-monkey-see-monkey-do/

Thanks for the responses to my query last week. In addition to the 1893
example I listed there (which I'll repeat here because my original
message was thoroughly trashed with extraneous characters, and I'm
surprised anyone had the patience to read it), I found an 1892 example:

1893
The July 16, 1893 issue of the /Saint Paul Globe/ has an advertisement
for a shoe sale by a store called the Golden Rule. Of their imitators,
they say:
There are one or two side-shows who, by a monkey-see-monkey-does method,
do sometimes draw a little trade, but after you buy once you buy no more.

1892
Dec. 22, 1892 issue of the /Milwaukee Sentinel/. It's another ad for a
shoe sale, and simply says "Monkey sees, monkey does" in a paragraph
criticizing the competition at length.

In addition, I found one more 1893 example, again for a shoe sale, and
an 1897 example, for a clothing store in San Francisco.

Neal

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