Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-03-23

Florida who remembered you.
Next best thing to getting away
Yourself" he was saying, sis to get
presents from folks who can. Quite
hefty present this is, too. Marked fra
gile Fancy fruit of some. kind, / guess.
He was off down the front sidewalk.
l heard tearing of paper, and then
a request for shears, which was at
tended to by Nancy, the hired girl. Then
heard the sound of pasteboard being
clipped and then a terrified: "e-e-e-e-
e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e"
This was followed by a series of
thuds and heavy breathing. l went
downstairs to investigate. My wife was
just regaining consciousness, in Nam
cy's arms. Nancy was saying:
''Nothn' to faint away fo'. Them liz
alligators wouldn't hurt nobody They
ailrt got no teef to count
That was how Albert came. | have
yet to learn who sent him, and an ac-
count to settle
OF course now he was here, there
was nothing to do but to make him at
home as well as we could, in our ignor-
arce of his manners and customs. But
coming from land where hospitality
is prevalent, he would expect well
come, and we did our best to give it to
him,
1 knew vaguely that alligators are
amphibious, but didn't know how am
phibious they are. Amphibious means
dwelling part of the time in the wa
ter and part of the time on land, but
| I oh to inf
instance, must Albert be provided with
lodging which would enable him to
go in and out of the water when he
chose, or could he De kept for a week
or two in q globe, like y gold fish, and
then be permitted to patter about the
house for a week, or walk out on a
leash with his mistress. / couldn't be
sure and I couldn't find anybody who
had ever had an alligator
We decided finally to let Albert de-
termine the matter of his lodging. I
had a tinsmith build a shallow tank,
one end Of which sloped, SO that il the
creature got tired Of the water he could
climb out on dry land, or rather dry
tin, and then return again if he chose.
The question of feeding was more diff
ficult.
I was sure that allgators ate, like
| other creatures, but what they ate |
did not know. In the words of Mr. Kip
| ling / had read that crocodiles, which
are very like aIlgators ate Hindoos,
but there are no Hindoos in the town
where live, and if there were very
much doubt if one could be found who
+! would be willing to allow Albert or
anybody else to eat him, or even to nib
/ BILE at him, for Albert, being only about
eighteen inches long could hardly eat
whole Hindoo, even if given plenty
of time.
4 / was sure, although / do not know
why that live food Of some sort would
be necessary, but we had no live food
/ in the house., not being addicted to it
ourselves. Then thought of flies
which were just at that time begin
ning to be plentiful. / caught a couple,
] being careful not to kill them, and Of
! fered them to him. He turned away
!! wearily, and closed his eyes. Evidently
( flies were not his diet.
1 The next day / went down to the
/ Sound and dipped up some minnows
! with a net, which 1 loosed in the tank
where Albert was reposing, his nose
| just out of water. He paid no atten-
| tion to them. The next morning they
were all there, alive and wriggling,
| so they We're crossed off the list.
| l was uneasy by this time, Tor it is
| against my principles to allow any
| creature under my roof to starve. With
| various forms of inanimate food
| tried to serve the alligator but he de-
, clined them all In few days gaunt
! look came over his features, and he
! seemed to be losing interest in life. /
| was sure that he was starving. | re-
| sorted to forcible feeding.
| Taking him gently from the tank
and holding him by the nape of his
neck so he couldn't bite me, | pried
open his mouth with q pair of pliers,
reversing their customary action and
thrust minnow down his throat.
returned him to the tank, and presently
| the minnow swan. forth from the jaws
! of death, unharmed. After that l gave
| it up.
Albert chirked up in day or so de-
spite the lack of food, and spent his
J time either in the water or out of it,
thus justifying my Judgment in pro-
viding him with an amphibious home.
| Presently he tired of the tank and
| one day when nobody was watching
/ flopped on the floor / don't know
/ where he spent the early part of the
! day. We missed him and searched for
! him everywhere, but he was unfind-
! able.
But in the afternoon a caller came in
/ - lady caller, while my Wife was up
/ stairs and the maid showed her into
| the living room. My wife, was just COM
| ing down to greet her when she emit
ted loud scream, rushed into the hall,
| opened the front door, slammed it af-
/ ter her and got into her car.
My wife rushed out to find out
what was the, matter, but it was too
late. She had driven away Called up
i on the telephone she said that some
sort of gigantic and revolving insect
| had attempted to bite her in the house
! She was quite indignant about it nor
did my wife's explanation that it was
only a pet alligator mollify her in the
i least.