The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-05-15
A RACE FOR LlPg.

A charming languOr, the exqnis
tie luxury of ease and relief, wa
almost akin to pain in its delicious
relaxation and repose. This stat
of enhancing rest and refresh
} ment was interrupted by the dog
Bragg jumped upon my back as
swan, with something between 1
: yelp and a whine. My frs
thought was that the old fellow
was as hugely content as myself
but more boisterous, and was fol
a splashing romp in the water
Nothing loath, 1 turned to give
him a good tousle for his liberties
when horror! not twenty yards
away, his long snout and saw like
spine bubbling sinuous above the
waves, was the accursed dragon OF
old Nile, huge alligator, making
right at us!
"There were two of the mon
sters; one at greater distance to
the right, but nearer to the shore
| to which / was swimming; the
other between me and the impossi-
BILE haven / had left. / was ut
terly and instantaneously unnerv-
ed. The woman's nature in me
has never yet been SO overcome by
my studies as to familiarize into
indifference an instructive abhor-
renee of anything of the serpent.
kind. An innocent chameleon liz
ard, with his pretty gorget of
striped carmine and white, and his
changeable green and gray
coat, is repugnant to me; the gar
den snake, fangless and harmless
as butterfly, arouseth old Adam
as much as the coiled adder; and O
crocodile adds his grisly, unre-
deemable ugliness to intensity the
dread and hate.
"The blood curdled in my heart,
and per OssG, as the Latin strongly
puts it. struck out madly, fari-
ously, without sense or discretion;
but was checked and called to my
proper self-eommand by one dread
full fact; the dog sSGs Outsscina0aing
me. Now I knew as we'll as if it
were q thing done, that one of US
must be sacrificed for the other.
One might possibly escape from
those two monsters, but two could
not. A man having any self-con-
troll can easily Outswim a dog.
Aroused by this reflection l struck
outagain vigorously, but with long,
steady, oar-stroke sweep. Not
overland, which gives only an
appearance OF speed, like Mr..
Pecksniff's high trotting-horse,
but long, regular frog swimming. |
/ soon saw the effect of it. |
passed the dog, who turned in to-
ward me, with q whine and effort, |
as passed. A crocodile or alli-
gator-they are one and the same
quite rapidly; but he
does not dart like q fish. The
dogs nose or foot touched me,
and l looked over my shoulder in
voluntarily. An alligator's jaw in
the dry skeleton is terrible to
look at; the serried fangs are all
made for destructive rendering,
not mastication: "His horrid jaws
agape with double fang" as Es-
chylus describes it. But that huge,
lipless maw-
=. And that more wondrOus was in either jaw,
Three ranches of yron teeth enraunged were,
In which yet trickling blood and gobbets raw
or late deTourcd bodies did appear -
ugh! that l saw, as I live to tell it,
with the exaggerated monstrosity
of destructive power in its eighty
teeth fitting in alternate sockets;
the Sights of narrow eyes glow
ering above; the long serrated |
spine bubbling above the water
right at my heels.
"There was a dull, deadened |
chumpf, the drowned yelp of poor
Bragg, and dog and dragon disap-
pearcd in q surge of bubbles"
II was spared this time, but not
yet safe. Sliding over the spot |
where they had disappeared came
the second alligator, not ten yards |
away. At that moment l caught |
the overhanging limb of stout.
blackjack oak, clustered with jas
mine and green-b rier, and needless
of scratches, swung myself aloft. |
had the satisfaction of seeing
the disappointed monster Messing
about below. "-Atlantic for May.
%SS
The liquor dealers and their
friends have manifested unusual
L