St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-17
FIGHT WITH AN ALLIGATOR
4 Mothers Heroism to Save the Life of
Her Child
ALMOST ENDS HER OWN.
A Thrilling Experience Of Life In South
ern Observation-Disclosures
Fond Of Pork.
Los Angeles Evening Express.

| Los Angeles Evening Express.
A family named Lambert, living on
Lake Charlie Apopka, or Tsala lake, as
it is called, report very thrilling eX-
| perlence at their place the other day.
The family is composed of Mr.. and Mrs.
Lambert and three children, two boys
and girl baby, the boys being eight
and fifteen respectively, and the
| girl just able to toddle about. They
moved there some two years ago and
pre-empted homestead on the south
side Of the lake. The house is built
about 200 feet from the lake and on a
slight elevation, the land in front slop-
ing down gradually to the waters edge.
At the left, off some little distance, is
an immense sawgrasS pond. Near
this Mr.. Lambert built an in
closure for his pigs, one side facing
the lake, and up to month ago he had
magnificent lot of porkers. One night
several weeks ago he heard tremend
GUS uproar in his hogpen, and hurrying
out with his shotgun and lantern, he
was just in time to see one of his fine
hogs disappearing in the lake in the
mouth of a huge alligator, while the
scores of balls of fire seen gilt
tering in the darkness on the lake
showed the presence of others of
the Saurian'S friends, for, to the aver
age gator, fresh pork is luxury he
dearly Graves. From that beginning
their inrOads were kept up with great
regularity, and though he killed doz-
zen or more, yet the pork was too nice
for them to relinquish their feeding
bold as to crawl into his yard in day
time, and the predatory raids of these
marauderS on his hogs and fowls have
| rendered Mr.. Lambert'S life burden to
him.
A recent adventure, however, of
two members of his family with one
| of these dreadful creatures has so ter
1ified the farmer, and has so alarmed
his entire household that he is seri-
ously contemplating abandoning his
place altogether. One Saturday after
who was in the back part of the
house, was attracted by the screams
of her little girl, and frantic cries
of mamma! Mammal Hurrying
to the front OF the house she could not
at first locate the little ones where
abouts, but her piercing screams con-
tinued, and the almost frantic mother
soon discovered the tlutter of her child,S
dress near the lake shore, the palmetto
bushes nearly hiding her from view.
| Snatching up an AK from the wOodpile,
rounded the palmetto patch a sight
burst upon her that nearly drove her
crazy. On the edge of the bank. with
| its body half in the water, was huge
alligator, its forepaws outstretched,
raising it from the ground,
while it's tail dashed the water
into foam. Just in front of it. and
clinging to palmetto root with her tiny
hands for dear life, was the little girl,
her dress being held in the jaws of the
| alligator, who was slowly dragging the
child to a terrible doom. The aIligator's
dull eyes cleaned with anger, like red
Goals of fire, and when Mrs. Lambert APP
peared the monster uttered a hOarSe bel
| low, and started backward, tearing loose
the child's slight hold. The latter'S in
fantile features were drawn into an
agoniZed appeal, and as the animal
dragged her down she was too
completely paralyzed with fear to
even cry out. The peril of her baby
| baniShed all fear from Mrs. Lambert,
and she rushed up and struck the sau-
rian over the head with the axe, and
selling the child with both hands, tried
to pull her away. The sharp blade cut
into the alligatOrs eye, and, mad with
pain, he opened his jaws and half
sprang at the woman. This left the
child free, and they both fell backward.
Mrs. Lambert said afterward that at
! this moment she never expected to save
her life. AS she fell the, alligator
swung around his tail with a ter
fortunate fall of the two just
placed them outside its deadly sweep.
The alligator advanced as far as it could
with unWieldy waddle, and Mrs. Lam
bert attempted to rise and escape. Her
dress caught on root, and before she
could get up and free herself the alli-
| gator made snap at her and missed,
| catching hold of her dress instead.
Finding that it had secured something,
it commenced backing toward the
wateo. dragging along the PROSTATE
woman, who now fully realized her
peril, and filled the air with her cries
| for help. She frantically clutched at
the roots as she was dragged over them,
but her dress was OF stout material, and
the alligator'S strength soon overcome
her feeble resistance:
Suddenly, with heavy sinking of the
heart, she felt that her foot was in the
water, and that, if no help came, she
was doomed to a terrible death. The
horror gave her strength for moment,
| and she made another frantic effort to
free herself, but it was in vain, and she
| felt herself drawn into the water. Sud-
denly her hands, which were nervously
| clutching at anything and everything
| that seemed to promise support, passed
over the ak handle. With the swift
ness of thought and with Superhuman
energy she seized the helve and
scrambled up, and how she cannot
say. She managed to deal the gator a
heavy blow with the blade. With rare
| good fortune it struck his other eye and
crushed into the head. The maddened
and wounded reptile opened its jaws
with roar CT pain and rage, and Mrs.
Lambert's dress slipped off its huge
teeth. Scrambling up, she seized her
baby girl and fled wildly to the house
and fell on the porch in dead faint.
Her husband, on returning home at
night, found her there unconscious,
with the child patting her mothers
| cheek and trying to arouse her. Doc
tors were at once summoned, but at
last accounts the sorely tried mother
was living over again her heroic fight
| in the fever of delirium. The next day
Mr.. Lambert went to the lake and at the
same spot soon found out the old gator
lurking in the weeds. AS footsteps
were heard approaching he came forth
menacingly, but two shots from a A.
caliber Winchester soon placed him hors
de combat The wounds in his head
| were deep and showed that the mothers
arm had been nerved to srtike a terrible
blow. The little child was not hurt, as
! the gators teeth had caught in its dress.
| But the dresses of both the child and
| Mrs. Lambert showed the hard usage
| thew were subject to. This is one of the