The record-union., 1891-05-10
MULE AND ALLIGATOR.
An Acquaintance of No Benefit to
Either Party.

It was in the winter of 1870 that made
my first visit to Florida. At that time
railroads were not; the Northern tourists
were few in number; st. Augustine was
a sleepy old town with no Standard Oil
king in sight. The alligator basked
quietly on the banks of the st. John, and
the white plume of the egret cleaned
from every swamp. Bears, deer and
turkey were abundant. At Lords COM
Portable cottage at New Smyrna were five
or six anglers who filled their boats
daily with channel bass, sheepshead and
spotted sea trout. Almost all those
worthless have Joined the great and silent
majority. New Smyrna then contained
three houses and a store, and from the
head of the Halifax to the Inlet there
were hardly 100 people. Daytona I think
was laid out that year. A mile below
that hamlet lived kind of naturalist
named Chamberlain, who had a cottage
on the river bank filled with skins of
beasts and birds, and copper jars of alco-
hol containing fishes and reptiles. which
he collected for Northern museums. Like
that OF most men who live close to nature,
his conversation was interesting, and
often visited him. One day he said, 81
think you have not seen my alligator.
Come with me and l will show YOU my
pet" We went to small creek about a
hundred yards from the river, winding
through a hamak. At one place there
was high bank into which Chamber
lain thrust pole. The reply was a loud
and angry grOwl. He is at home, but
he won't come out to-day" The pet was
a good-siZed alligator, seven or eight feet
long, which Chamberlain had partially
tanned by feeding it with fish and snakes,
the gator being particularly fond of the
latter. Chamberlain punched it with the
pole to make it come out, but it seized the
pole in its teeth and shook it. II think
If was alone he would come out, but he
is little beshful before strangers" said
the naturalist, and we left.
The next year when | visited the re-
gion Mr.. 9. had moved away to some
wilder and more congenial spot, where
he would have fewer neighbors, and my
host at the Inlet told me of the fate of the
alligator. Alter G. left some mischievous
boys at Daytona borrowed a mule with
plow harness and took him to the creek
where the alligator lived. They punched
him till he got angry, and then dropped
the plow chain on his nose. The gator
seized it at once, as is the habit of the
beast, and held on to it, bulldog fashion,
while the boys started the mule, power
ful animal, which dragged the alligator
from the hole. Now there is nothing
which mule fears more than an alli-
gator, whose musky odor will set him
crazy. Whom the mule smelt this he
looked round, and seeing the beast at his
heels he tore away homeward at full
speed, dragging the gator after him-and,
of course, the faster he ran the faster he
was pursued. Up the narrow road he
dashed, the gator bounding behind him,
striking against trees and stumps at
every jump, so that before the mule got
to his stable the poor alligator was dead
enough. AS to the mule, his nerves were
so shaken that he never could be got
down the river road again. He smelled
alligators in every breeze and was a
ruined mule.-F'oreSt and Stream.