The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-09-27
A Man Crocodile.

III LOuuOH luty nave OH eAHlDlUlOu
semi-amphibious man named James
Swan, whose performances at the Pa
vilion in Coventry Street are thus de-
scribed by Frank Buckland in Land
and Water:
When the curtain drew up 1 observed
on the stage pretty large tank, with a
glass front, filled with water. In the
water were floating five living croco-
diles, averaging from four to six feet
long.
The band strikes up lively tune, and
the man crocodile climbs up ladder at
the side of the tank, and at once jumps
into the water, which comes nearly up
to his neck. He first of all walks round
the tank, and (as it were) stirs up the
crocodiles, making them swim about in
all directions. There is one of his
aquatic beasts, however, of which he
seems to be in wholesome dread. This
is large swapping turtle, but L could
not get near enough to make out dis
tinctly of what species he was. Having
looked around to see where these rep
tiles are swimming, Mr.. Swan dives
down to the bottom of the tank, and
quickly seizing Mr.. Swapping Turtle,
brings him up into the air, where he
fourishes him about over his head, much
to the delight of the audience and the
discomfort of the turtle. The reptile
having been thus performed with, is
allowed to go, and he descends with a
lazy, heavy motion to the bottom of
the water. Mr.. Swan next feels among
tho thIolv of fhn ornonl.1nu III
have by this time crawled into one cor
ner. Having chosen two of them, he
very adroitly takes one in each hand
round the neck. This, 1 should imagine,
was very difficult think to do, as the
crocodiles object considerably; they
make the water boil again with the
lashings of their tails.
At last firm hold is obtained round
their necks, and they are fourished
about in the air, opening their mouths
and swapping right and left.
Mr.. Swan then decends again, and re-
mains under water for considerable
time. When under water he eats, drinks
and writes on a slate, in this respect
rivaling, if not outdoing the "human
frog" who performed in London few
years ago.
The inscription he writes on the slate
is "Swan, the man crocodile" He
causes the crocodile which he has at the
bottom with him to make pretense to
rub out the writing with his paw. AS
cending again to the surface, Mr.. Swan
is offered a box by the attendants. He
opens the I'D of the box and extracts
therefrom good sized boa constructor.
This he entwines round his neck and
chest and again descends to the bottom,
wearing his serpentine necklace. From
the bottom he allows the boa constructor
to ascend and swim about the tank
where he likes. The serpentine mode
of swimming by the boa constructor, as
seen in the water, is highly interesting
The largest of the crocodiles has yet to
be exhibited. Mr. Crocodile seems to
know from experience quite well what is
coming, so he swims round and round
at tremendous pace, causing the water
to become so full of bubbles that one
can hardly see what is going on in the
tank. At length Swan catches the rep
tile; he has evidently considerable diff
Guilty in keeping hold of this fellow, who
lashes his tail about in a most wonderful
manner,
At length, after remonstrances with
the crocodile, he manages to get hold of
his head with the right hand and the
tail with the left. He lifts him out of
the water, and apparently is glad to let
him go again, so violently does he
struggle for his liberty. Other per
formances are then gone through, such
as opening the crocodile's mouth, max
ing the large snake swim round in a
circle, etc.
This performance is interesting to
those accustomed to feats of diving and
to naturalists. Managers of aquaria
may also take hint from it, inasmuch
as they may learn that crocodiles in
aquaria are really graceful swimmers,
and not the lethargic, sleepy brutes that
one sees basking like logs of wood in
shallow water behind iron bars. Oh
course the difficulty wolld be in keeping
these crocodiles in large tanks, that Of
the water being always of one tempera.
ture, that is sixty degrees or seventy de-
grees.