Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1916 — Alligators Terrify Diners in a Florida Hotel [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Alligators Terrify Diners in a Florida Hotel

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. —The Florida contingent of the Daughters of the American Revolution met at a dinner in the Windsor hotel here and some thoughtful person, to give local color to the affair, put several small No. 9A

alligators in the pool of the fountain in the room where the goldfish used to be kept. ** Alligators ate up the goldfish as a first course and then, attracted by the merry sounds and rattling of knives and forks, crawled out of the tank and mingled with the diners —for a moment only. The revolutionary daughters declined to do their part of the mingling, and, with a series of shrieks, they rapidly mounted the dining-room chairs. The alligators wagged their

tails in apparent delight at the sensation, but they did not try to climb the chairs. The women continued to scream, and a phalanx of brave waiters charged on the alligators and drove them back into the fishless pool, where was cold by that time, and was eaten in grimrsilence so as not to stir up <he alligators to making a fresh sortie. It was agreed that the scheme of introducing local dolor was a pronounced success, in a way, but any monkeying with the color line in Florida does not meat tie approval of the daughters, and they are trying t a find out who did it V. ' • iV'jv... v . f !. _ ’ _ _ .-i J-