El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-13

80 yes," said the alligator the 9TH
e. night when the Chihuahua band was
PLAYING, 81 kinder like that Mexican
music. 1t has q tropical sound about 1t
and hints of far deeper love and sentl-
ment than the northern races feel.
"The tropics ia the place, anyhow,
for a man If he can keep his health.
The women of the south are far more
beautiful than those of the north and
nature seems to cOnspire to create
sentiment, hatred OF manual
labor. and to invite man to take bis
ease and not agitate himself about the
sterner problems of life.
/" You asked me to keep my story
connected; we'll, 'scuse me for dlgress.
ing. After that girl drowned herself
in the Suwanee river the place had no
further charms for me. My parents
were dead-sacrificed to the rapacity
of the gator understand do what L
might 1 could not rid myself OF the ex-
preston of that dead girls face when
they took her out of the water IL
haunted me night and day, and since
most of my childhood friends, too, mad
been slaughtered and all my early as
sociations broken up, decided to emil
CRATE.
"One day 1 quietly pulled up stakes
and started down stream. Day by day
l travelled beneath the shade OF the
live oaks. 1 finally passed onward into
another river and along that until
reached the Cuff of Mexico. l was
washed along its shore by the cad sea
waves until l reached the mouth or the
Withlacooche river and this L ascend
ed.
"Fifty miles from its month. where
orange groves then adorned either
shore, decided to take up at least
temporary abode. Niggers tended
the groves and dogs from the neigh
boring houses strsyed along the river
bank The prospect of getting q
square meal meet confess induced me
more than anything else. to stop and
was not disappointed for puppies were
plentiful and many OF them came down
to the water to drink, never to return
I grew fat eating them. Many OF the
larger alligators. who abounded there,
Toasted occasionally on niger meat.
TERRIBLEiFATE.
'Once a young white man knocked
negro off a steamboat wharf into the
water. He was seized and torn limb
from limb in the twiukling OF an eye by
the huge alligators which infested
those waters. That nigger's eyes bulged
out of his head and he was terrified be-
FOND description when he saw the ter
rible Jaws of the crocodiles opening to
receive him, even before he struck the
water.
81 laughed heartily at the comica
spectacle.
latter a time got weary and con-
cluded to emgrate again. was young
and wanted to see the world. l had no
home ties and there was not the least
necessity for me to stay long in one
place, SO one bright morning l pulled
ny freight.
II finally reached the Gulf and tax
ng Q southerly course and keeping |
close in to shore soon reached the Ever |
glades.
THE EVERGLADES.
s'That's the place for wild fowl and
LII kinds of reptiles. Alligators and
,rocodiles thrive there and grow as
arge, as anywhere in the
world. The water and i'm
oassible marshes are full of them |
Ind the lowlands, where there are any, |
ire the home of remnants of Indian |
,ribes, who, years ago, sought refuge |
n the impossible swamps from Andrew
Jackson aud other heroes.
"The only thing that ever broke the
solitude of the everglades was an oc-
,asional invasion by party of hunters
,r sight seers from the north. These
Invariably came blowing their way
through the marshes or gliding across
he open sheets of water in skiffs.
They killed wild fowls for their plum
Ige and alligators for their skins. /
They often ommunicated with the In
lians and hired guides from them or
Fought curiosities.
ST was not a very old fellow in those
lays and was pigmy beside the mon
tiers inhabiting those waters. They