Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-19
A GATOR CATCHER.
AN OLD NEGRO WHO MAKES GOOD MONEY OUT OF THE SAURlANS.

How JeR Makes an Assault Upon an All
 gator Scst and Captures the Whole Fam
 fly-The Babies Wicked Papa Has a Way
 of His Own ct Emptying tho Nest.
 Out of many queer, quaint characters perhaps Gator Jeff'' is tho most pie tnrcsquo and striking in all of Pasco coun- ty, Fla. Ho is an ex-slave, black as a De- cember night and so bent as to form al- most perfect right angle when he stands still For years and years Jeff 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 harvest of eggs or, if ho prefers, crawling, twisting sackful of young gators. The latter he has made a speciality for northern tourists. All like to tako homo "a real live littlo gator to some boy relative or friend. The little eaurians are fairly hardy, are not danger ous in any way, are very bright and mako interesting pets. The market price is from $1 50 to $2 50, according to size and activity. When one considers that there arc often from 50 to 100 baby gators matched out in one nest it will be at once seen that the profits from finding and catching such family arc not slight. Still each family is rapidly depleted from the moment of matching, and if the youngsters arc not found till week after leaving tho eggs they are generally reduced to tenth or less of the original number.
 Thus Jeff has to keep himself well in- formed of affairs in tho gator family. or he loses money.
 On any still, calm morning, before the sun is showing over tho cypress banks, you will sec old ]" Gator Jeff, as his namo goes in that region, polling his dug out gently along under the shadow of tho ovcrhanging trees. The bent old black will havo on only pair of canvas or calico trousers tied in at the ankles and fastened at tho waist by a belt In tho bolt he car rios short, straight sheath knife with O or inch blade, and tied to his waist is folded sack. Corked up in a small bottle in his pocket is some rcd pepper, and theso with tho two coils of slender ropo in tho bottom of his craft, are his tools and weapons.
 Suddenly he will head toward a low mud bank by the opposite shore, where a big, half sunken gum tree has fallen be- tween the mud bank and the shore As he noiselcss1y draws near a long, flat brown object that novice might have called rock or a small mud bank moves and goes down, leaving long eddy behind. Jeff knows that is the old bull gator. He knows also that he has gone below into the hidden nest, where he will scare cut Mrs. Gator, and then, taking advantage of the alarm, doyour tho greater part of his family. Papa gators are the worst foes their children have, and so Jeff loses no time. He draws the nose of the dugout upon the mud, and then, without splash or a sound, slips into the slimy water He dives and an onlooker would wait in vain for him to reappoar and would, when five minutes had elapsed, think he had been killed by tho old bull or been caught in water grass and drowned. But, mol These gators have queer fashion of selecting hollow homes under clay banks, the only entrance to which is from under water. Hero the mother will rear tho little ones, taking them on each fair day to sun op some nearby sand bank and returning homo every night. If she leaves them moment fish or other gators, particularly their own father, will kill and eat them all
 Frequently when the fond paternal par ent evinces too much appetite and at tempts to cat one of his ba abies in the pres ence of Mrs Gator, he is thrashed and driven from home In this case Jeff has only tho bull to fear He has, as Is his usual practice, captured tho mother the night before and has got her tied to stake near his homc He dives and emerges be- yond the gum tree trunk and under the bank in little washed out cave. Here, high and dry, he finds, when his eyes get used to tho queer dim light that filters in through the creek water, the family of baby gators. Though their mother has only been away one night, he finds third of the family gone and that increases his anger, when ho hears snort and finds the bull is crawling after him from the dusky corner of the cave He dips back into the creek, and when his enemy approaches the edge of the shelf thrusts his keon knife into the leathern belly and gives it quick turn An agonized grunt follows, and in a whirl of bloody, muddy bubbles the gator plunges out into the creek mortally wounded Later on Jeff will pick up his floating carcass and tow it homeward be- hind tho dugout. Now, however, he only stays long cr ugh to gather up the blink ing unresiSting youngsters and tumble them in surprised heap into his sack. In about five minutes or trifle more his head, with its dripping gray wool, comes popping up beside the dugout, and he drops 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 a horrible and disgust ing ono, full of danger and exposure to levers, but Jeff laughs at this. When you wonder at his foolhardiness in diving un- der some foul clay bank, when both parent gators were at home guarding the young, he will show two broad rows of toothless
 ,l Uut3 s., ( ,f mirth. He will show you how he can fling red pepper and totally blind the reptiles in their cave how he can stab them or moose their feet or jaws, and, lastly, he assures