The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-09-21
LOOKED IN A FLOATING TOMB.

'I see by this mornings Sun" said
Mr.. Maguffin, ''that Mrs. O'Klantikop
is married again. Her last husband,
Major O'Klantikop, used to board here
He spent his winters in Florida hunting
aligators, and more devoted sports
man I never saw but he never was sat
isfied with the old method of shooting
with rifle. There was great waste in
the bullets that glanced off the reptiles
backs, and frequently one would get
away before he could hit him in q vital
spot. So the Major went up to Charles
ton one winter and bought a condemned
columbiad that had been used at the
siege of Fort Sumter, and had it mount
ed at bend in tie st. Johns river, and
trained to command the water adjacent
to the point round which all the alliga-
tors must come and having loaded with
a ten inch shell, he waited. = ="
The next day there came up stream an
alligator that seemed tickled with some
thing that pleased his fancy very much !:
when he swung his upper jaw back to
laugh, the Major thought it was float
ing derrick but when he came within
clear range, O'Klantikop saw it was q
monster alligator, and he pulled the Inn
yard. The aim was beautiful. The
shell struck just inside the top of the
tip of the lower jaw, and as it rolled
along toward his throat, the change in
the alligator's expression was remarka-
able; he shut his mouth with clip that
was heard ten miles away, and fairly
bumped himself as the bomb rolled down
the interior. About midway of the body
the shell exploded. The explosion
could not bring back the happy alliga-
tors last gleeful fancy, but it moro than
restored his openness of countenance.
The Major said subsequently, however,
that while this method of destroying
alligators was undoubtedly effective, it
broke 'em up too fine and s., we left
river, and invented q new plan.
His outfit this time was fishing rod,
feather, and piece of scantling about
eight feet in length. Having fastened
the feather to the end of the rod, the
major would walk to the edge of the
river, reach over the bank, and delicate
ly tickle an alligator's jaw with the
feather, and when he closed his eyes
and opened his mouth to enjoy the
usual tithllation, the major would quiet
ly step up with the scantling, and have
the jaw braced back before the alligator
knew what was the matter. Then the
major would calmly put bullet down
his gullet, and take his prize ashore
In this way he captured sixty-seven al
igators in four months
One day the pilot of the steamer that
runs up the st. Johns saw an obstruc-
tion which was not down ON the charts,
and which had not even been visible
when the boat made her previous trip.
Backing his engine, the pilot was still
more surprised to see the obstruction
making towards him. It looked some
thing like spar buoy adrift, and when
it came still nearer it was made out to
be piece of stout scantling sticking up
through the upper jaw of large alliga-
tor. The pilot was amazed but when
the story reached Jacksonville, the fate
of Major O'KIahtikop, who had been
missing for three or four weeks, was no
longer a mystery everybody who was
familiar with the Majors style of hunt
ing, knew that the strangely planted
piece of scantling that the pilot had
seen was Major O'Klantikop's tomb
store, and that the major was buried
about seven feet back of it. The gen
orally accepted theory was that O'Klan-
tikop, made reckless by uninterrupted
success, had miscalculated in placing
the Top end of the scantling, and the
rafters in the roof of the alligator's
mouth had given way, letting the huge
jaws together, and locking up the major
in sarcophagus which in novelty of
design and high qualities of absorption
completely laid over anything in that
way ever constructed by the Greeks"