Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1891 — Unpacking AlligatorS. [ARTICLE]

Unpacking AlligatorS.

The author of the “Becollections of a Lion Tamer,” relates how, after being for some years employed aa an animal trainer, he and his wife had, by great economy, saved enough to buy a modest menagerie, and received their stock of crocodiles, serpents and monkeys at an inn near Lyons, France. One evening several alligators came, and were placed in a store-room which opened from the courtyard. Maria and I, with several persons to hold lamps, set to work to unpack them. You can imagine how agreeable that unpacking was. The alligator is wholly lacking in grace and gentleness. Each of his jaws is ornamented with seventy-five teeth, his body is covered with armor that defies attack, and his tail is an invincible weapon that can overthrow, cripple, or destroy an adversary. Our alligators had had a long voyage. Never of an amiable disposition, alligators are in particularly bad humor after a journey, and become the most ferocious of creatures if they escape. Ours escaped I What confusion there was! Every one rushed to the door, the lights went out, and my wife and I were left in the darkness, face to face with this horrible, invisible danger. We had climbed on a table. At one blow from the tail of one of the saurians the legs gave way. Terrified, we rushed from one side of the room to the other, hunting the door. The frightful grumbling of the angry beasts* mingled with the sound of their tails and jaws striking against the furniture, the flag-stones and the walla. At last I found the door. We were free; but that was not the end of the matter. Not to be injured by a stroke of the tail of one of the alligators was one point, and not to tt* ruined was another, for these delightful companions had cost us our little fortune. I went back, carrying a torch. I threw myself resolutely into that melee, and finally succeeded in getting the saurians into safe quarters. It is indeed a wait of woe to sit aa hear in a dentist's outer office.