Alligator Sense

"Do you know, " said Colouel Ben Cason, leaning baok in his chair, "that alligators are the rnost affectionate creatures on earthr It's a fact. And the sense they have 1 They 've got more seuse than a dog. How do I know? Haven 't I educated 'em? Aiu't there au alligator llOyearsold in Des Allemand bayou that would work bis tail to the bone for toe if I asked him to? Say, you make me tired! What are you laughing at? You get a gallon of niolasses and a long necked bottle and I'll show you how to tarne alligators. It's the easiest thing on earth. They're so aSectionate. "On June 23, 1885, I went to Des Allemand bayou fishing. Anegronamed Baptiste Fortier had just caught an alligator 100 years oíd. I could tell by the rings around him. You can't tnin a young alligator, That.'s funny, a: 't it? I asked Baptiste to sell him to e. I paid him $-1.95, and Jim, that'p e alligator 's name, was mine. I pn a chain around his neck. Then I got me a long necked bottle, filled it with : :.olasses and walleed up to him. He op' ed his jaws to nab me. That was my chance. I shoved the neck of the bottle in his mouth, just back of his ears, where an alligator has no teeth. I tilted the bottle up. Jim tasted the molasses and began wagging his tail. He broke Baptiste's leg, but that was an accident. He was as gentle as a setter dog from the minute he tasted the molasses. I taught him a lot of pretty tricks - how to catch flies, how to stand on his tail, how to chew tobáceo. Finally I harnessed him up to a boat. He looked around at me to see what I wanted. I reached over the side of the boat and pushed him a little. Then he understood. Off he went. When I pulled on the rope I had around his neck, he was nonplused for a minute, but he soon oaught on, and now when I go to Des AUemand's I never have to hire anybody to paddie my canoe. Jim attends to carrying me anywhere I want to go. "Say, do you know Jim is as glad to see me whenever I pass that way as if he was a relative of mine. What's that? Of course it's the truth. Ask Baptiste. He takes care of Jim for me while I am