Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-03-15
A GATOR CATCHER.
AN OLD NEGRO WHO MAKES GOOD
MONEY OUT OF THE SAuRlANS.
How ,Jefr Makes an Assault Upon an ALI
GATOR Nest and Captures the Whole Fam
nv-The Babies Wicked Papa Has Way
of His own at Emptying the Nest.

If His Own ut Emptying the Nest.
Ont of many queer, quaint characters
perhaps ..'Gator JEFF" is the most pic
turesque and striking in all Of Pasco coun-
~. Fla. He is an ex-slave, black as De-
cember night and SO bent as to form al
most perfect right angle when he stands
still. For years and years JET has Devoted
all his energy and thought to hunting
and trapping alligators.
All the year around he is either hunt
ing gators or locating the nest where he
will shortly gather a harvest OF eggs, or II
he prefers, crawling, twisting sackfui
of young gators. The latter he has made
a speciality for northern tourists. All ike
to take home real live little gator to
some boy relative or friend. The little
saurians are fairly hardy, arc not danger
Gus in any way, are very bright and make
interesting pets. The market price IS
from 81. so to So. so, according to size and
activity. When one considers that there
are often from SO to 100 baby gators
Matched out in one nest, it will be at once
seen that the profits from finding and
catching such a family are not slight.
Still each family is rapidly depleted from
the moment of Matching, and II tho
Youngsters are not found till week afte1
leaving the eggs they are generally reduced
to a tenth or less of the original number.
Thus jeff has to keep himself well in
formed of affairs In the gator family, or
he loses money.
On any still, calm morning, before the
sun is showing over the cypress banks,
Won will see old g Gator jeff as his
~, hot
out gently along under the shadow of the
overhanging trees. The bent old black
will have Oh only pair of canvas or calico
trousers, tied in at the ankles and fastened
1T the waist by a belt, In the belt he car
Ties short, straight sheath knife, with a
or inch blade, and tied to his waist Is
l folded sack. Corked up in small bottle
IN his pocket is some red pepper, and
,hese, with the two coils of slender rope in
he bottom of his craft, are his tools and
Weapons
Suddenly be will head toward a low
mud bank by tho opposite shore, where
zig, half sunken gum tree has fallen be-
iween the mud bank and the shore. As he
1oiselessly draws near long, fiat brown
jbject that novice might have called
rock or a small mud bank moves and goes
Town, leaving long eddy behind. jeff
Knows that is tho old bull gator He
Knows also that he has gone below into
he hidden nest, where he will scare out
Mrs. Gator, and then, taking advantage
If the alarm, devour the greater part of
his family. Papa gators are the worst
oes their children have, and so jeff loses
10 time. He draws the nose of the dugout
lpon the mud, and then, without splash
ri sound, slips into the Shiny water. He
lives, and an onlooker would wait in vain
or him to reappear and would, when five
minutes had elapsed, think he had been
Tiled by the old bull or been caught III
water grass and drowned. But, no! These
gators have queer fashion of selecting
follow homes under clay banks, the only
'ntrance to which is from under water.
1ere the mother will rear the little ones,
aking them ON each fair day to sun on
ONE nearby sand bank and returning
lome every night. If she leaves them q
moment, fish or other gators, particularly
heir own father, will kill and eat them
ILL.,
frequently, when the fond paternal par
mt evinces too much appetite and at
empts to eat one of his babies in the pres
lriven from homo. In this case jeff has
,nly the bull to fear. He has, as is his
Usual practice, captured the mother the
night before and has got her tied to stake
aear his home. He dives and energies be-
Jond the gum tree trunk and under the
,anll in a little washed out cave. Here,
high and dry he finds when his eyes get
1sed to the queer, dim light that filters in
through the creek water, the family of
)aby gators. Though their mother has
)nly been away one night he finds third
If the family gone, and that increases his
anger, when he hears snort and finds the
bull is crawling after him from the dusky
corner of the cave. He dips back into the
reek, and when his enemy approaches
The edge of the shelf thrusts his keen knife
INTO the leathern belly and gives it aquick
urn. An agonized grunt follows, and in
whirl Of bloody, muddy bubbles the
gator plunges out into the creek MORALLY
wounded. Later on jeff will pick up his
boating carcass and tow it homeward be.
mind the dugout. Now, however, he only
stays long enough to gather up the blink
ng, unresisting youngsters and tumble
hem in a surprised heap into his sack.
In about five minutes or trifle moro his
lead, with its dripping gray WOOL, comes
popping up beside the dugout. and he
irops the sack aboard. Then he chambers
IN himself and is off for fresh game.
His visitors and his few neighbors re-
gard his calling as horrible and disgust
.ng one, full of danger and exposure tc
levers, but jeff laughs at this. When you
wonder at his foolhardiness in diving I'M
Ter some foul clay bank, when both parent
gators were at home guarding the young,
le will show two broad rows of toothless
gums and "Ya! Yal'' in the excess of
nirth. He will show you how he can fling
ed pepper and totally blind the reptiles in
heir cave, how he can stab them or moose
heir feet or jaws, and, lastly, he assures
5ou what you never heard before-that al
igators are absolutely harmless under
alter except for the sweep of their big
ills. They can only bite or use their
avs on the surface or on land. Then,