JOURNAL. 



,. P.mr Unllar* a Year . 

 Ten Ceulu a Copy. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1877. 



/ Volume 9.— No. 4. 

 JNo. Ill Million St., N. Y. 



FISHERS OF MEN. 



Down the calm river they leisurely floated; 

 There, iu a nook that was shady and cool, 

 They brought out their ljn.es, and their hooks were all coated 

 With bait, well adapted the h^hesto fool. 



Mabel was with them, and Lizzie and Laura, 



Maidens light-hearted, aud merry and fair, 

 Eacli bestowed smiles on her favorite adorer, 



Destined, perchance, to fall into her snare. 



Idly they played with their lines in the river; 



Little they oared though no fish should be caught; 

 Fondly each hoped that the fates would deliver 



Into her keep ng the lover she sought. 



Lightly they talked upon themes with which Cupul 

 Had lavishly filled both their hearts and their brains, 



And laughingly said that tne men were all stupid, 

 The while they were artly weaving their chains. 



The day passed away and the fishing was ended; 



Pleased witb themselves the fair innocents looked; 

 They gazed on their victims, and each comprehended 



The fish she had angled so long for was hooked. 



Then back to the town the young men rowed lightly, 



Their baskets all empty— that ashing was tame- 

 While on each other the maidens smiled brightly; 

 The fishers of men had won at their game. 



upon hasty inspection, that my guide had left me all my own, 

 with exception of a rifle and cartridges, sufficient to compen- 

 sate him for his wages in case of my defection. There were 

 provisions enough for a fortnight, and game was plentiful in 

 the jungle behind the beach in shape of birds, so that on the 

 score of subsistence I knew no fear, and proceeded to pitch 



and a whirlpool of foam on the alligator's, as a ball from my 

 rifle dashed the light from his eyes forever, ended the comedy 

 that had threatened to be a tragedy. Wringing the water 

 from his shirt and ragged breeches, Jim spread himself and 

 them upon the sand to dry. 

 It transpired in the course of the day, that the captain had 



my little tent serenely beneath a glossy-leaved India rubber. I met Jim, told him of my circumstances, and had hinted in 



My guide, with a thoughtful kindness that must have hurt moment of remorse, that it would be as well for me if I were 



.hun, had left the cold remains of themorning's meal-venison, off the island, as a storm was threatening and the rising water 



For Fore.it and Stream and Rod and Gun, 



jpr* l§iukwood§ (^m\vm*ier. 



His name was Jim. 



He had another name— supplementary, as it were, to this 

 "front " name— but it came in use so rarely that even his old 

 acquaintances had nearly forgotten it. Let it remain un. 

 known, as Jim sometimes reads the magazines and would visit 

 dire vengeance upon the writer should he see this truthful 

 chronicle of his deeds. Let it not be reasoned from the re- 

 dundancy of Jims in narratives of personal adventure, that 

 this one. like the majority of them, is fictitious. 

 " A truer tale has ne'er been told, 

 Aud his name was Jim, and is—" 

 Under the palms of Florida's southern shore, stretched be- 

 neath the waving, rustling palmettos, carrying an eagle Jieaded 

 whistle, carved from the ivory tusk of an alligator, lay my 

 hero when first I met him. I had had, as boatman and guide, 

 old Captain Grongar, a salt from the North, who had lost his 

 «savor by living a score of years in the South. A rare speci- 

 men of the misplaced Yankee was the captain, possessing all 

 the deft ways of the nautical Cape Coder, and the laziness and 

 unthrift of the Florida " Cracker." 



Rum did it— rum and poverty ; for in this case they are not 

 synonymous terms. 



The captain was a queer nut, alternately pleasant and again 

 strangely sulky. In one of his odd freaks of lunacy he had, 

 left rue upon the sandy shore of a secluded island, far down 

 tne coast, thirty miles from the nearest habitation. Rather, 

 let me say, he had left my effects. I was in the mangroves, 

 half a mile from the boat, following the trail of a wild turkey, 

 while he, perfidious guide, was calmly depositing my goods 

 upon the beach. A. pile of camp equipage beneath my eye 

 and a white sail far away, as I emerged from the swamp 

 brought me up, to use the captain's favorite expression, "all 

 stau'in." To shout was useless. The captain's back was to- 

 ward me, and his face determinedly set toward his humble 

 cabin and its adjacent grocery, ninety miles to the northward. 

 A scrawl traced in the white sand read : 

 '■'■Too much pwn for my stumik." 

 Alas! and had it come to this ! 



Rare birds and strange beasts were the objec's sought by 

 me in this nondescript land of the transition, and I had, for 

 the preservation of their f urry and feathery coverings, a large 

 package of arsenic. Long usage had accustomed me to its 

 presence at our frugal meals, but not so the captain. In vain 

 I cited learned authority in favor of its use ; in vain I reasoned 

 and labored with him to the effect that, should he accidentally 

 swallow a poisonous dose, a mouthful of mustard and water 

 or an opportune application of the stomach pump wotdd in- 

 stantly relieve him. He saw that I was wedded to my arsenic, 

 and had taken the method narrated to rid himself of the 

 "pisen" and myself at once. 



.Night was not far distant, and it was necessary to prepare 

 for it, leaving to the morrow the question of escape, I found, 



fish and flapjacks— and, after a cup of hot coffee, I threw some 

 dry wood on the fire and went to sleep. I had been too long 

 in Florida woods to trouble my brain with visions of wild 

 prowlers of the night that never appear, and snakes and 

 scorpions that never bite, and my slumber was sound and 

 sweet. 



The duties of the opening day, simple and primitive, occu- 

 pied but little of the morning, and ere the sun had dried a 

 drop of dew from the leaves, I was beyond the jungle fring. 

 ing the snowy beach hunting the sombre oak hummock for my 

 turkeys of the day before. The excitement attending the 

 working up of the trail, the surprise, the capture, and the sub- 

 sequent shooting of the stragglers, so occupied me that it was 

 well toward noon when I turned toward my deserted camp. 

 Staggering beneath my load of noble birds, breaking through 

 the spider-legged mangroves, disturbing countless hundreds of 

 quaint fiddler crabs and enormous spiders; brushing aside 

 the impeding vines, I burst upon my camp, no longer deserted, 

 for there lay — Jim ! 

 It was our first meeting. 



A little sloop-rigged boat was drawn up on the sand. I 

 manifested no surprise. He looked not up. Thrusting the 

 half finished whistle into his pocket, be arose and said, look 

 ing out upon the water, " "Want to see me catch that 'gator ?'7 

 I threw down my turkeys and looked out over the water. 

 Just outside the break of the surf, on the beach, was the head 

 of an alligator— listless, seemingly lifeless, asleep, drifting on 

 the glassy water with half closed eyes. To inexperienced 

 eyes that head would seem a black knot of wood borne by the 

 waves ; to my eyes it appeared the head of a nine-feet alli- 

 gator. Without awaiting reply, Jim waded in— deeper and 

 deeper ; the water reached his waist and dashed lazily against 

 his breast as he neared the sleeping saurian. The heat of a 

 semi-tropical sun had lulled his senses to repose, else Jim 

 could not have approached so closely unseen and unnoticed. 

 Cautiously dipping his handin the water, and bending over so 

 that his face was squarely reflected in the watery mirror, Jim 

 suddenly closed upon the thin, serrated tail, and then braced 

 himself quickly back to meet the expected shock. It came. 

 Concentrating his dormant energies in a single rush, the 'gator 

 leaped forward with a terrific splashing of his paws ; but he 

 strove in vain against the strength of my hero, for, though 

 he could drag him, he could not throw htm, as he hung to the 

 tail with both bands. The gleam of quiet satisfaction that 

 shot from his eyes as his baud clasped the 'gator's tail was 

 gone, and iu his face there was a fixed determination born of 

 the struggle— the first recorded of the strength of man pitted 

 against that of alligator. Bat, as might have been expected 

 the contest could not last long. I do not think that Jim 

 meant to capture the reptile, only to impress me favorably 

 with his prowess by an act of bravado. Finding he could not 

 escape, the alligator paused a fewseconds, quivering with rage 

 his sullen eye emitting lurid flame, every scale on his mailed 

 back rigid with anger. Only a moment of time— a second or 

 or two, perhaps, when, with a muttered, guttural bellow, like 

 that of a half-strangled bull, he threw himself out of the 

 water, swinging around till his horney snout nearly touched 

 his tail and the horrid jaws clashed in Jim's face. 



That spectacle will last while memory holds. The black 

 bulk, but a few minutes since inert and apparently lifeless, 

 poised in air, lithe and terribly vigorous, the water dripping 

 from its mailed form and streaming from its armed jaws. 



It is not strange that Jim loosed his hold, even if the sud- 

 den jerk had not forced him, with that cavernous mouth, 

 white with bared and glistening fangs, so near his face. He 

 fell backward into the water, and the alligator, instead of de- 

 vouring him, as it had good cause to do, darted beneath him 

 with the rapidity of light. A few rods away the black head 

 reappeared, and the evil eye glittering coldly beneath the pro- 

 jecting dome of the skull, watched its late antagonist as he 

 floundered ashore. A muttered curse or two oa Jim's part 



atening and the rising water 

 would suddenly cover my camping place— too rapidly for es- 

 cape. 



This actually happened a few days later, but we were safely 

 clear of the island then. 



Jim was garrulous, and delighted to relate his many adven- 

 tures, mainly with panther and alligator. " Why, this wan't 

 nothing to what I did once up in the Banauna River, as any 

 body on the river can tell you. You see there's a big 'gator hole 

 up there, where's jest the biggest 'gator that ever you did see. 

 Old Cap'n Crongar was with me and stumped me to dive 

 down and yank him out. Well, I wa'n't to be beat on the fc 

 game, and I jest stripped and went for him. There was jest 

 the tip of his tail a-stickin' out, and I knew from its clumsy 

 look it belonged to a big one and I should have a tussle. Wei!/ 

 you see, I got hold and hauled and braced my feet against the 

 bank, but I couldn't start him. Then I had to come up to 

 breathe, as the water was more'n fifteen feet deep, and then 

 down I went again and took another pull at it. I swear ! I 

 believe that tail was rooted in the bank, and I had tried three 

 times and was jest givin' it up when the darned thing began to 

 move. It didn't sort of yield gradually like, but seemed to 

 come out of its own accord, and as though it wa'n't in any 

 hurry about it either. Well, I found 'twa'n't no use pulling, and 

 I jest watched it backin' out till it got to the fore-shoulders, 

 and much as fifteen feet was in sight and more a-comin' and 

 the shoulders was broad as a bear's, and then I scooted. It 

 wa'n't none too quick, I tell you; and that thar 'gator he 

 streaked her for the boat, and took a piece out of the gunnel 

 of one side jest as I was climbin' in t'other. The cap'n he 

 was so scart his hair stood right up, and he didn't have sense 

 enough to paddle ashore, but sat there saying, ' We're gone 

 coons, sartin! we're gone coons!' Well, the 'gator left us 

 and put for his hole, with the piece of our boat in his mouth 

 and we could hear him a-chawin' of it and a-growlin' over it! 

 He was a twenty-footer, sure as preachin'." 



This account was substantially verified at a later date by an 

 old inhabitant of the coast, who added that Jim was not afraid 

 of the devil himself. 



A few weeks later we were at an inlet on the coast, fishino' 

 for sea bass, which were unusually plentiful, rippling the " 

 water in their eagerness to take our hooks. I was engaged 

 in catching them, throwing my line into the surf and then run- 

 ning up the beach with the powerful fish, while Jim had !?one 

 to the hail of the captain of a small schooner anchored inside 

 the bar. Soon he appeared, and running his ere over the 

 long row of silver-sided fish, said I had caught enough and 

 must go with him to aid in recovering |the captain's anchor. 

 Of course I obeyed, and we moored our boat as near as pos- 

 sible above the place where the anchor was lost. The fast 

 ebbing tide ran rapidly by us, dashing against our boat and 

 singing against our moorings. On either side a multitude of 

 sharks disturbed the water, their triangular fins projeetinc 

 above the surface and streaking it with foam. Jim attached 

 a line to his naked body, telling me to haul in rapidly when 

 signaled, and dove. Anxiously we waited; for his reappear- 

 ance, and when he came up safely and reported the anchor 

 caught beneath a mangrove root, we urged; hini not to °-o 

 down again ; but, with a glance at the increasing number of 

 fins, he gave me directions about the line and to keep up a 

 continual splashing, and then disappeared. Up again ; a rest 

 of a minute, clinging to the side of the boat, and again beneath 

 the angry waters. The fourth time he wasjsuccessful, and as 

 I helped him into the boat, exhausted and breathless he 

 whispered faintly, "Made that V easy, didn't I ?"' 

 This is but one of his mad pranks. 



I have seen him snatch a bird from the jaws of an alligator 

 and then add a rap over the nose that greatly hastened the de- 

 parture of the astonished reptile, thus bearded in his own den. 

 A similar instance occurred while he was acting as guide to a 

 staid college professor the next year, as the professor aforesaid 

 delights to narrate. So much instruction in wood lore, the 



