The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-20

Only about thirty of the defenders
Were left alive.
stand them uD in line and shoot
them" commanded Gen. Manigat, the
government leader.
But they were too weak to stand.
All of them were wounded, half
starved, and fever-stricken. So the
government troops propped them up
in chairs and shot them as 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 help
less captives, that triumphant war
rior merely blew cloud OF cigarette
smoke and remarked calmly, "C'est la
guerre."
Late on Christmas Eve" said the
American, they tried me by court
martial. When I woke up on Christ
mas morning 1 was in the calaboose,
sentenced to be shot at shutdown. It
wasn't very pleasant waiting. / was
quite glad when a gold-laced officer
entered the cell toward evening with a
paper informing me that His Excel
lency the Citizen President had been
pleased to pardon me. in consideration
of the request of the American MIN
lister, and of the fact that it was Christ
mas day.
II believe they had never intended
to shoot me, but only to brighten me,
| for they hardly dared to touch white,
man whose country owned a navy that
might lombard their ports. Anyhow
/ got out of Jail in time to eat my
Christmas dinner with some American
and English friends on coffee plan-
tation near Miragoane."
A Queer Christmas
An American globe-trotter tells how
he once spent Christmas hunting
| crocodile in Jamaica, West Indies.
The crocodile was a famous old beast
| with a great local reputation. The ne
groes swore it was about thirty feet
| long and a hundred years old For
miles around, they lived in mortal ter
ror of it. Besides carrying off goats
! and pigs, it used, If local legends may
| be trusted, to take a stroll now and
| then down the main street of a river
| side village and drive everybody helter-
| SHELTER indoors.
AS the American was sitting down
! to a Christmas breakfast at the table
of a hospitable planter, the negro but
/ Ter rushed in, shouting excitedly:
| Laid, sah Here's q ting, hill De
old crok-dile him nyam (eaD Nippy"
The planter was very indignant, for
Nippy was his favorite dog.
| 'Tn kill that crocodile to-day, If
l
After a long hunt, the crocodile was
/ found buried beneath the mud in a
/ shallow bend of a river on the planta-
| ton. The hunters only carried small
| shotguns, which were useless against
the beasts tough hide, covered as II
/, was with several inches deep in mud.
! But the planter was a man of re-
source. He sent hurriedly for negroes,
| and set them to work to construct two
| strong walls of bamboo poles across
| the bed of the stream, thus enclosing
| the crocodile in q prioSon, from which
1t could find no escape
After the walls were built, every
body hid quietly in the tall grass on
the banks and waited. Hour after
hour they laid there. Their Christ
mas luncheon consisted of sandwiches
| and q flask Of rum punch.
1t was not until the end Of the aft
| ernoon that the crocodile, finding II
could not break through the bamboo
| barriers, crept out of the water. Be-
fore it could drag the whole of its
| huge carcass out of the mud, ii was
lassoed and hauled toward the bank
by twenty willing hands.
Too surprised to offer resistance, the
beast at first suffered itself to be al
| most dragged on to the bank; but II
caught on the edge with its forepawa
and made a desperate struggle. Twen-
| ty yelllnB negroes nuHB OH 10 the Otn~
err end of the rope, but could not drag
that crocodile up; they could only pre-
vent it from Topping back into the
water again, Honors were easy in that
terrific tug-of-war.
At last a yoke of eight oxen had I'd
be brought. They soon dragged tht
beast to the bank, where 1t was tied
round a tree and despatched with
axes and machetes.
While the creature was being slain
the negroes became wildly excited.
Some gave vent to their feelings by
dancing around and politly inquirine
of the crocodile, How you feel now
Ell, Massa Tom?" or "Warra, no more
pickneys fe you, Ell, Massa Tom?"
They carried him to the house In
cart, which they decked out with wild
flowers and palm fronds. The whole
population Of the plantation turned
out, dancing and singing in triumph,
to follow the enemys corpse.
"And, SIR" the American always
concludes, chat was the queeresi
Christmas / ever spent, and I've had
many strange and curious ones"