Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-03-31
FLORIDA'S ALLIGAT0RS.
HUNTERS ARE FAST THINNING
THEM OUT.

In Another Year or Two the Timid
Picaninny May Wade Into the
Streams Without Fear of Being
Eaten Alive.
One Of the chief attractions of Flor
ida, the alligator, is becoming extinct.
Certain 1t is that the creature is grow
ing less and less, until 1t is predicted
that in a decade or two the timid
pickaninny may wade into the slug
gish streams without fear of being
eaten alive.
The tremendous onslaught Of peo-
pie who hunt the alligator for differ
ent purposes has brought about this
condition. The reptile is being carried
around the earth in the shape of
handbags, belts and pocketbooks, I'M
til there are few left to tell the story
Of his past greatness.
Not only this, but the little ones
are taken from the nest as soon as
they pip through the eggs. In this
primitive and miniature state of their
lives they are sold to tourists, alive,
and are shipped or carried to every
section of the north. A little fellow,
scarcely six inches of dark, wriggling
animation, brings from so cents to
$3.50, and on up to much higher
prices. Many people make living
Tobbing the nests, which have been
made on the sand and where the eggs
exposed to the sun hatch in course
of time. They are placed in big box,
where a hundred may be seen, the
casual observer noticing no life until
they are disturbed, when the whole
mass begin to scramble over each
other. A little fellow is imprisoned
in a cigar box and shipped according
to address or whim of the purchaser.
Catching the alligator for his hide
has, more than anything else, decimat-
ed the tribe. These are made into tray
cling bags and belts and many other
kinds of leather goods. The horned
back hide brings the highest price,
and an ordinary sized pelt of this kind
brings 81. Others vary from So up.
Many of the skins are bought for the
purpose of hanging them up in rooms
adorned by sports, who, have weak.
ness for displaying trophies, alleged
sometimes, of the hunt
None of these hides are tanned or
dressed here. They are sent north
and come back to meet a ready sale
at greatly advanced prices.
For a time other uses were made of
a dead alligator. His jaws were made
to produce bushels of teeth, which
are manufactured into all kinds of
articles-cuff buttons, charms, stick
pins-and they are strung together in
a yard or two of watch chain. The
supply however, became so great as
to make them a drug on the market
The demand fell off until a barrel of
them could be bought for a song.
In other years the alligator fur
nished no end of sport for tourists
who came down the st. Johns River
He could be plainly seen from a
steamboat deck, swimming about the
stream, when all kinds of guns would
be brought to bear on the black OBJ
ject, until the poor fellow had no
show for his sluggish life. In time,
however, the state stopped this prac-
tice, and now the game must be taken
according to the provisions of the
statute
The alligator, animate and mani
mate, has been made to serve the
queer fancies of millions of visitors
to Florida. AS has been said, they
were bought alive, but it is the CHS
eled, carved, painted, nodded and
stuffed alligator that most loosens the
purse strings of the souvenir buyer.
A dealer here says that imitation
alligators are the articles most sold
here. There are three leading favor
lite souvenirs on which the choice of
a buyer is at once centered. The first
is the alligator, offered in more than
a thousand conceits of a resourceful
designer Then comes the coat of
arms which was found cut in the
stones of the ancient city gates. The
third choice is the orange knife, but
on the latter a carved alligator is
often made to do service for a handle.
Perhaps no tribe of idolaters ever
worshiped an inanimate object, per-
chance the costly work of the skilled
magicians and artisans, as do the
great mass of people who come down
here and carry, wear or ship away
this ugly, repulsive representative of
animal creation.-Exchange.