Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1879-03-01
AN ALLIGATOR STORY.

ic story from tho State of Michigan,
| wherein was beautifully recounted an in
cident exhibiting the good influence kind
ness has over the dumb creation. The
story ran thusly: On the borders of
wife, who were Blessed with little
daughter who had inherited from her
mother that greatest charm of the more
gentle sect-kindness, coupled with
loving and romantic disposition. This
little piece of loneliness found great plea
! ure III going to tho margin the lake in
question and feeding from her chubby
hands the finny inhabitants thereof, and
so tame did two large representatives of
I the piclxerel race become that on her APP
proach they would permit themselves to
be harnessed to a little canoe wherein
| tho little heroine would be drawn
| over the surface of the placid lake
| until fatigued, when, by u signal, her
| boat was drawn to its moorings, and the
| voluntary slaves released. Another lit
! tie girl was saved from drowning by q
pond of grateful trout, who formed them
selves in a solid mass under the sinking
body and bouyed it up until assistance
| was rendered. These are touching stories
and would touch the heart of tho most
| hardened as rare exhibitions of the divine
goodness of our Creator, through his most
humble creatures. But we too, have a
| tale to unfold, for which VIC claim, from
the peculiar nature of it's principles, cx-
ira consideration at the hands of our
| readers. In the northern portion Of this
Parish, as is we'll known, are quite a
number of lakes. wherein abound count
less numbers alllgators, (the horror is ne
gro children and dogs). Another feature Ct
these lakes, Of the "cypress knees" that
rise above the waters surface, like coral
rock in the expanselcss ocean. Many
years ago there lived on the margin of
one Of these lakes an old negro and his
wife, who possessed as their hearts idol,
an only son who bore the name of Jerc-
miah, after ode good OF man what low
cd to talk wild de Lord" and to whom
often prayed for his intercesson
with Jehovah in their behalf. Little
Jere found more pleasure in a "dug out"
(where he would frequently lie for hours
and soundiy slumbcr, while his boat glid-
ed over the water, guided only by soft
breezes that stole through the heavy fol-
iage) than in the cxhleratinS sports of
his companions. One day, while out in
the woods a scene met his gaze that at
once touched his heart both with compass
sion and indignation. Suspended by one
foot, in Il split in the top a young sapling
was baby alligator, as firmly imprison'
ed as was Louis the Fourteenth's prison.
er with the Iron Mask, and tho little
creature would, no doubt, have died had
not Jere released him and per,nitted a
! return to his native element, tho limpid
waters of the lake. Several years passed
and the occurrence had been long oblit-
cred from the not too quick intellect of
our dusky hero, when it was brought to
his mind in u manner both startling and
impressive. While on the bosom of the
lake in question, engagled in angling for
the beautiful "speckied perch" one day
in mid summer, fell he asleep and toppled
into the water, whereupor 4 hundred or
more OF the most rapacious of the aliga
tor tribe arose to the surface and made
for him with all the grcediness for which
they are peculiar, and he would have
been dragged from his perch on u large
"knee' had it not been for the determin
ed fight made by ono the mosters, and
his vociferous yells, which soon brought
his devoted parents to the rescue. The
father boldly put forth in q boat and
with q heavy broad axe spread conster.
nation among the brutes. Jere was car
ried home insensible, and many were the
weary hours that he lay upon his humble
couch and in fevered delirlum live oyer
the scene of his experience, until one
bright Sabbath morn, when his soul took
it's flight to that beautiful land beyond
the seas, to meet h s Savior and the good
prophet whom he had been Taught from
early infancy to regard rs 4 mediator be-
tween God and his earthly images. In
der no circumstances, after this, would
Old Tom, Jere's father, injure or permit
any one else to injurc the alligators III
this particular lake