Smyrna times., 1904-08-17
SCORES DELAWARE CORRESPONDENTS
CentreviIle Observer Calls Attention to the
Fabulous Stories Which are Published
10 Some Reputable Papers.


Says the Centreville Observer: ''The
avidlty with which old line newspapers
renowned for their conservative and
factual columns, swallow exceptional
articles of news, without so much as
barely questioning their authority, is
something passing, wonderful. Not
many moons since the Baltimore and
Philadelphia papers published re-
markable gorilla story, from Laurel,
Del, in which was related that young
member of the ape tribe had escaped
from passing menagerie; had lived,
even thrived, in Delaware forest, and
have fallen in the habit of chasing ne
gro bicylists and, after giving them
sound hug, releasing them from fur
ther suspense or injury.
The article on the face of it amused
us. We had learned before of the
wonderful imaginative powers of
certain Delaware correspondent. Not
that we doubt that a gorilla could live
in a Delaware woods They are vast
enough to accommodate young army
of apes. But that the gorilla, almost
a missing link between the higher and
lower creation, could show such lack
of discrimination as to chase after ne
groes and bicyclists, stamped the story
as next to impossible. Delaware has
an abundance of girls that are really
pretty. We are authority on the sub
ject, having a complete brigade of be-
witching damsels in our midst for
comparison. And we have seen mighty
sensible apes, too. Yet, not one in
the whole family from the chimpanzee
up to the orang seemed to us even so
stupid as to fail to distinguish between
the Ethiopian bicyclist and a rosy
checked pedestrian.
1t was a story from the whole cloth;
fraud upon the face of it, and our
friend, the Baltimore Sun, assisted in
perpetuating it. OF course there were
other journals concerned. The CORE
spondent's imagination paid we'll. We
overlooked it in the rest, but the Sun;
well putting it mildly, fair size cloud
obscured its beams temporarily.
And here comes another. This time
it is the Sun again-a repetition be-
yond forgiveness. Two men it says
in a special despatch from Laurel
from Laurel, mind you-are injured
by the tail of an alligator which had
escaped from a circus iu Salisbury
many miles distant. Delaware fisher
men mistook it for pike. They trolled
for it and the alligator swallowed tie
bait The men took fright but party
of picnickers rushed to the bank The
two men got axes and guns! The alli-
gator again seized the bait and fight
took place The boat was overturned
and fight royal ensued in the water!
Through the vigorous slasbings of the
alligator's tail one of the men was
hurt. But Mr.. Alligator was con-
quered and despatched.
Now it is amusing. Who ever
heard of an alligator biting trolling
hook? And if he had wouldn't it have
been an easy proposition for him to
have bitten the line in two? Doesn't
it seem rather strange that crowd of
picnickers should have rushed to the
very shore from which two affrighted
fishermen were fleeing? And isn't it
rather strange that the alligator should
have come back to the same hook
which so recently had gagged him?
How remarkable that he should have
wandered from far away Salisbury for
the purpose of finding lodge in a
Delaware mill pond? How unusual in
an alligator to attain such benevolence
in spirit that he spared two lonely
fishermen their legs and necks when
he had them in the water. For it
must be remembered. that these par
ticular members afford choice mOrsels
for the alligator's stomach, if our
friends Stanley and Livingstone be
correct.
1t is only another case of our friend
from Delaware disposing of so much
Imagination for so many sheckles.
He finds it pays and the daily papers
make no objections.