Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1889 — A Chicken Eating ’Gater. [ARTICLE]

A Chicken Eating ’Gater.

It is the custom of alligators to move across the country from one river to another. The purpose of this migration is not learned. They go alone and not in couples or droves as has sometimes been reported. A short time ago a monster alligator started from the Hillsboro River to a lake back of Tampa, Fla. He passed through the Central part of the town and finally reached the back yard of T. A Wilson. The reptile found himself in a flock of chickens and began at once to make a meal of them. This raised such a commotion in the poultry yard that Mr. Wilson’s attention was attracted to it and he went out to investigate. He discovered the saurian, and with a well directed shot hit him in the eye and killed him. The big saurian was then cut open and skinned. In his back, which is more like a piece of white leather than anything else, except an alligator’s back, were found a large number of bullets which had passed through the scales and embedded themselves in the backbone, where they had become fl attened but and evidently caused the reptile no uneasiness. When opened, the stomach of the alligator was a curiosity. A number of pieces of tin showed that he had enjoyed a tin can lunch, while from the fact that he had swallowed a beer bottle, it appeared that he was not a prohibitionist. There were two small fish, nearly whole, and a pair of baby’s shoes. It was not known whether he had swallowed the child or whether he had found the shoes where the child had placed them and made a meal of them, but every * mother who saw the tiny shoes shuddered and clasped her own child tightly to her. It will probably be never known how the’shoes came there; but it may be that some mother’s heart is sad over the loss of the little one who wore the tiny shoes. The alligator was skinned and the skin sent to the tannery. The reptile measured nine feet and seven inches in length. —St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.