Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-28
RIDING ALLIGATORS.
A NATIVE WHO THINKS NOTHING OF
MOUNTING A SAURIAN.


over His Eyes and Say "G'lang."
If the ancient writers and painters
who Denoted men ON horseback as CEN
taurs were now living what field they
would find in Florida for originating
new forms of life, provided they fol.
lowed the idea developed in the produc-
ton of the creature that was part man
and part horse! Here, for instance, they
could see men riding huge saurians
across q lake without either reins or sad
die, some coming from the depths of the
ocean mounted on gigantic turtles
weighing as much as Clydesdale horses,
and others straddling a jewish, shark or
porpoise, or being towed behind an enor-
nous sea devil in cookie shell of boat
or in large schooner.
Tampa boasts Of a colored citizen who
has no more fear of an alligator than he
has of the harmless lizard, and will at
tempt to ride one any day for small
sum of money. His method of riding
the reptile is to enter lake or pond
where the species congregates, select
large one, jump on its back quickly and,
pressing his thumbs on its eyes, urge it
shoreward.
An employee of the South Florida
railroad, whose name have received
permission to use, informed me that he
had often mounted old bulls in the lakes
of fernando county and ridden them
ashore without any trouble by simply
pressing his thumbs on their eyes and
urging them forward with his heels or
shouts. He found it far easier work to
mount than dismount, for as soon as his
saurian steed touched the shore it tried
to seize his leg by bringing its tail and
head suddenly together and rolling over
and over like barrel going down hill.
This is the ordinary method employed
by alligators for capturing their prey or
enemies, and as its efficacy depends on
the prompt conjunction of jaws and
tail, the stroke may be readily avoided
by a little figuring" to use Mr.. Stat
ford's expression.
According to Mr.. Stafford, all he had
to do when.in in want of an aquatic mus
tang was to enter a half dried pond, pick
out the largest and LATEST saurian he
saw there, mount it promptly and point
its head landward. The mounted ami
NAL, according to his statement, makes
no fuss about moving wherever it is
directed while in the water, but the mo-
ment it touches land it uses every effort
to throw and devour its jockey.
1t is possible to ride an alligator some
distance overland by tying its muzzle,
as it does not attempt to do any injury
until it can throw it's open mouth and
long tail together by a sudden sweep to
one side. Mr.. Stafford, who is, be-
ieve, native of Florida, veteran
hunter and an expert alligator jockey,
relates an anecdote which. shows that
saurian riding is as dangerous as Irish
steeplechasing when the mount is sulky
or wounded. He had ridden an alligator
ashore during one of his hunting trips
and as it was rather large and its skin.
as consequence, usually valuable, he
decided to kill and fay it near the pond.
After emptying the contents of his ri
fie into its head and assuring himself of
its being dead, he drew his knife to fay
it; but he had hardly touched the head
ere the alligator returned to life, and
seizing him by the coat sleeve COM
menced rolling over and over. The sec
ond or third roll took the sleeve off his
coat and dislocated his arm, and on be-
ing set free in this unexpected manner
it did not take him long to scramble out
of reach of the furious reptile. A ply
sician who was hunting with him set his
arm in few moments, and when that
was done the jockey poured lead into his
late mount until he was sure that its
ferocious spirit had fed.
A man who has shot alligators for
their hides told me that the animals
were harmless in winter and inclined to
avoid contest with men at all times
unless they were wounded or defending
their young. They are worse in the
pairing season than at any other, the
bulls being then unusually petulant,
more than ordinarily stupid and stub
born and inclined to resent any intru-
sion on their grounds. Yet by boldly
facing them they can be forced to run,
and may even be mounted and ridden
ashore, provided there are no females in
the vicinity.
He once tried to ride an old bull to-
ward landmark that loomed above all
other objects on the fiat shore of lake
on dark night, and wondered why his
steed tried so hard to turn away from it
whenever the thumbs were lifted off the
eyes, but he was able to account for it
readily few moments later, when an
enraged female that was guarding the
landmark, which was her nest, rushed
open mouthed and grunting like an in
sane grizzly, and sent her conqueror
precipitately to the rear and it's Jockey
deep into the mud.
Fortunately for him the assailant was
more enraged at the bull than at the
jockey and followed it several hundred
yards, charging at intervals and thrash
Ing dangerously with her tail whenever
she got an opportunity. The male was
driven almost across the lake before she
decided to return and attack the man
but he was running on shore for dear
life long before she had given up the
pursuit Of the steed.
The rider said he had seen MANY des-
perate charges during the civil war, but
that he never was in one that SO com
pletely benumbed his faculties as the
charge of that "big mouthed squaw
gator" He thought he could ride a
male saurian at any time of the year,