Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-19


thirty of the defenders We're left alive.
Stand them up in line and shoot
them" commanded Gen. Manigat, the gov
errment leader.
But they were too weak to stand. All of
them Were wounded. half-starved and
fever-stricxen. So the government troops
propped them up in chairs and shot them
IS they lolled there. Only the white man
was spared. in order that his case might be
inquired into.
When he protested to Gen Manigat
against the cruelty of shooting helpless
captlveS, that triumphant warrior merely
blew cloud of cigarette smoke and re-
marked calmly, "C'est la guerre"
Late on thliStn1eti eve, said the Ameri-
can. they tried me by court-martial. When
L woke up on Christmas morning | was in
the calabooSe sentenced to be shot at
shutdown. 1t wasn't very pleasant waiting
was quite glad when q goid-laced officer
entered the cell toward evening with i
paper informing that his eycelancy
the citizen president had been pleased to
pardon me, in consideration of the request
OF the American minister. and of the fact
that II was Christmas day.
Il believe they had never intended to
shoot me. but only to Brighten me- for
they hardly dared to touch a white man
whose country owned navy that might
| lombard their ports. Anyhow. l got out of
jail in time to eat my Christmas dinner
with some American and English friends
on coffee plantation near Miragoane"
Queer Christmas.
An American elohetrotter tells how he
once spent ID Christmas hunting crocodile
in Jamaica, West Indies.
The crocodile was famous old beast
with great local reputation The ne
groes swore it was about thirty feet long
and hundred years old. For miles around
they lived in mortal terror of it. Besides
carrying off goats and pigs it used if local
log h.,
now and then down the main street of a
riverside village and drive everybody helter-
SHELTER indoors
AS the American was sitting down to
Christmas breakfast at the table of a hos
pitabe planter the negro butler rushed in,
shouting eXcitedly:
Laid, sab! Here's a ting hi! De ole
croe' die him nyam (eaD Nippy."
The planter was very indignant, for Nippy
was his fayorite dog.
I'll kill that crocodile today. If I waste
my Christmas over it," he swore.
After long hunt the crocodile was found
buried beneath the mud in a shallow bend
of river on the plantation The hunters
only carried small shotguns, which were
useless against the beasts tough hide. COW
cred as it was several inches deep in mud.
But the planter was man of resource.
He sent hurriedly for negroes and set them
to work to construct two strong wallis of
bamboo poles across the bed of the stream
thus inclosing the crocodile in a prison,
from which it could find no escape.
After the walls were built everybody hid
quietly in the tail grass on the banks and
waited. Hour after hour they laid there.
Their Christmas luncheon consisted of
sandwiches and a flask of rum punch.
1t was not until the end Of the afte noon
that the crocodile finding 1t could not
break through the bamboo barriers, crept
out of the water. Before 1t could drag the
whole OF its huge carcass out of the mud.
it was lassoed and hauled toward the
bank by twenty willing hands
Too surprised to offer resistance, the
beast al first suffered itself to be almost
dragged on to the bank: but 1t caught on
the edge with its forepaws and made a
desperate struggle. Twenty yelling negroes
hung on to the other end of the rope, but
could not drag that crocodile up; they could
only prevent it from Topping back into the
water again. HonOrS were easy in that ter
rifle tug-of-war.
At last yoke of eight oxen had to be
brought. They soon dragged the beast to
the bank, where 1t was tied round tree
and dispatched with axes and machetes.
While the creature was beng slain the
negroes became wildly excited. Some gave
vent to their feelings by dancing around
and politely inquirng of the crocodile
How you feel now. eh, Massa Tom?' or
'Warra, no more p:ckneys fe you. Ell,
Massa TOM"
They carried him to the house in a cart,
which they decked out with wild flowers
and palm fronds The whole popuIat- on of
the plantation turned out, dancing and
singing in triumph, to follow the enemy's
corpse.
"And, sir" the American always con-
cludes, that was the queerest Christmas L
ever spent, and I've had many strange and
curious ones"