Rapid Decline of One of the Ugliest Beasts on Earth.
Florida tourists note a sharp advance in the price of alligator material, and also in the raw material in life. This is owing to the large decrease in the supply. Diminutive live alligators have advanced from 25 cents each to 50 cents, and larger ones in proportion; in some instances a greater per cent, is charged for the full-grown reptiles, for they are much scarcer than are the baby alligators.
This is because of the sportsman and his deadly gun, who shoots the saurian out of mere wantonness and a desire to make a record. The Seminole Indians also conduct a war of extermination against the alligators, but as they kill for revenue only they are, in a measure, excusable. They also trap the smaller ones, from the tiny babe 10 or 12 inches in length to the “youngster” of two, three or four feet.
The baby ‘gators are boxed by the curio dealers and sold to ladies who affect great interest in the ugly things for pets. As the ‘gators only live on air and muddy water and an occasional chunk of meat every three or four days, they are not troublesome. The Indians, knowing the scarcity of alligators in all of the Florida streams, have imitated the paleface curio dealer and charge more for their ‘gators.
The baby alligators, while not valuable for their small hides, are killed by the hundreds and mounted. Some serve as thermometers- the tube running up the back. Another curio is a baby alligator standing upon his hind feet and playing a violin with its forefeet. Others are arrayed as waiters offering some article for sale or holding a lamp to light visitors to a tank holding a 16- foot or 18-foot live saurian.
Alligators three or four feet in length, mounted serve as grotesque advertisements and appear to be “so Natural” that the stranger is frequently in doubt whether “the thing is alive” or not, and make a detour in order to be on the safe side.
Very few colored people are successful in catching large alligators. There seems to be a mutual distrust and antipathy on both sides. While the alligator is not always looking for a fight, but desires to be let alone, he will fight a “negro” on sight. As soon as he spies a negro he will dive and rise at about the proper place and land him, or rather sweep him in, if within reaching distance. Not so in the case of white hunters. The alligator will swim away, unless its young is attacked, and then it will crawl out on shore and use its huge tail as a battering ram. One stroke will knock a man senseless.
The scarcity of the alligator crop is now a live issue, and this is one of Florida’s attractions it is urged that something be done to stop this wholesale slaughter. It is possible that the next Legislature will come to the rescue of the friendless alligators.
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