Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About North Georgia times. (Spring Place, Ga.) 1879-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1885)
mm _ 8 IA TIMES. ' - s - ] ■ w ,. m •<& HI S& [ ■ ;-|i V i I i _ i _ v/_ _ . , I / i l?S m Sgi! J siR A V v r 1 V. ^ w. ’:h §§§§£= SET - ^ ere °P® ne d In grave surprise, the pretty baby head Both captains shouted, “Halt! ’ The men w^sasfflsssr t Back to its mother’s cottage door. As 1 : ■ 9 ig Crocodiles The The w New w Orleans n i JWBsnbwrat w „ Ws,at r r mnaF T hj r anhef° l - lowing description of the smgular man 'hJr C troco ^ l es aro captured in ™ On the 10 th of February, „ 1878, alters ong voyage t rough liurmak, Tenasrim, a e -ing om of Siam, I reached - ,ito1 of Kingdom ’ ca * tQ e of ° )a '. ore wit , me a letter to King Noro om. will spare you all descriptions 0n ?". C a8 wcl1 63 °* m y recep « ion , by h s majesty. . What 1 promised Vou was the history of a crocodile hunt ~ had n vvell received at court, , A ter aving . been kindly treated by the mg, all his ministers did their utmost o give me a pleasant welcome. Several servants had been placed at my disposal, and also one of the court-carriages with » fine team of thoroughbred Birmaneso horses. I did not fail to inform my hosts of my passion for the chase, and for three months they had spoiled me like a child. day S0m0 huntin 8 P art ? or olher * '%m su arranged for my benefit. From «,2, TsLTo, u c.»bS d te “th” royal tiger itself, f had ko.ted alteoa, ^^ZmorninTon^et JlT<lTe7lJ™T ’ * of the prime minister who saidtu me’* ’ “Tabe, Thoo...,- (Good day, „ lord). “Tabe, Sais!” (Good day, servitor) I replied. “Who sends you?” “My master invites you to call upon him forthwith, at his palace." •/“Forthwith—now?" /‘‘I “Yes, my lord." go” And ordering my coach'run to follow the Sais, who had started off at a run, I soon found his excellency awaiting me at the threshold of his dwelling. “ Excuse me, "he said* «tek “if I have dis turbed ,»»; but I b, th. king-, orders. His majesty invites you to a crocodile hunt. We shall be Absent at least one week.” I thanked his excellency and promised to be at his house by 5 o’clock next morning, whence we should go together to the palace to join the caravan of hunters At4:30 o’clock next morning we ar rivet i the courtyard of the palace. A w r of servants had already com necessary preparations. The horses, carriages, elephants, and palan ke*n destined for the use of Horodom, Jus guests, and his wives, were ail then near the palace front. Further off was e long train of wagons freighted with provisions and supplies, as well as the tents and planking required for our tern Porary quarters. ' ■’ £ though as we were nrime^min o’ L war. The ie midst of rejoin the 8 .rodom ap gh officials m present mselves. I descended jesty. U His ibteit, i - ■ ' 1 PLACE. GEORGIA, THU 'AY, JUNE 25. 1885. nB. ’ -— the first halt; at ^SLSrt anate Jor tne ■£?£* mgtit. I Ren , proceeded the e ng s men to erect e i ce in w icn is majesty was tore pose or t *e night—a sort of immense cage, e eva e upon posts six feet above t e soi. elow this cage was another s ructute or the king s harem. f The ‘UTSS'* a ou this portable 8old ‘ m palace, formed and a kept circle all l Gl ° r f S » ° f US B * a ^‘stance 'hted in from a' circle it. a * npraent to keep at a distance. Tho prepared. At _8 • 6 i*4 ' W ° tort dent Without ^ attention to the roaring f of th* e igcrs. Next dav The.fZlvJZo the ^ 7*1 reneated Trh °?° i C in the momlnw we a v d of a little lake „ h o„t ' Tj our pomt ofde.tiMtion.and which, we * innUmW - able crocodiles. Our camp was pitched on the western shore of the lake, and preparations to catch the great sauri&ns were immedi ately begun. The minister, by order of Norodom, placed tho chief of the hunters “under my orders. That signified that he was to keep me perfectly well informed about everything which might take place. The chief conducted me some distance to the right of the camp, and'showed meacompnny of some fifty Cambodians busy binding together a number of smooth planks by means of bamboo ropes. About twenty of these rafts (I cannot tell them by any other name which ex presses their form equally well) were soon finished. * Near by a number of other men were engaged in preparing strong running nooses, made also of bamboo filaments, After inspecting these raft and noose factories, the chief took forty men with him, and all of us skirting the lake, vmwrHfi I 71 ." „„ ”, „ uU> rt.Tl.d .„ raU „ m of lke , h cll clo8ely ' a PP roached the bank. In an swer to my question, he said: I ” lh ' !,,i4 ' . climbing upon the shore. Seel" he ob¬ served, suddenly pointing to a declivity trampled smooth—as level as if heavy cannon had been constantly foiled over it, “there’s where they come out. If we can notice him, the one who comes here will not be easy to nail. Nail? I only wondered in my mind.but my eyes must have been like two points of interrogation, for the chief of the hunters added after looking at me a mo¬ ment: “Yes, nail! You are going to *“ ... “* WoM “ y ° U He P osted % Bft3 " s at tMa P ath < and we continued our inspection. Thirty points werc chos8n - and thirfcy men wore 8ta ' tioned at them ’ Before turD,n 8 hack t0 cam P 1 to <be cbie * : ' “But I have not noticed a single wrinkle on the water-are you sore there are any crocodHes?” no ^ answer » taking ft piece of wood . he wrapped it in a bit of red cloth and flung it about twenty yards out --■ Plftcen «econds passed—a few wave lets appeared-on the still mirror of the lake i there was a sort of dull sound, followed by a great shock in the water, 1 could not ses anything distinctly; hut the wood wrapped in red cloth had dia appeal- - - We returned to the raftmaking estab Ushment. Thirty rafts—fifteen feet long b y “bout four broad—were ready. A hundred running nooses were also pro pared for operations, V v ■ A* a sign® 1 from the leader all tho men not 0D dut 7 a® soldiers followed him. Each raft was carried by four men, while about a dozen followed us with the ™P es - “To morrow^orning the baits,” said the chief, “will be attsched to the rafts—about « of : ; Wo came to the first crocodile-beak, •" a.pmatioa.a.r.m.l.toptec.th. on i ’ ished it do : ’reall . , attached, intended to catch tho croco head. The nooses are operated by long strings, which were so arrnged as to be pulled at the proper moment by the man perched in the tree. These arrangements being completed, preparations were made for tho night, Fires were lighted behind each trap to keep the crocodiles in the water until dawn, when the hunt was to begin. At four in the morning, Norodom, his ministers, the courtiers, and the invited guests, are all awakened. From his elevated cabin the king can got a good view of the capture of the crocodiles, His guests, all armed with lances, take ^ 10 * r way to tbe western bank of tho lakc ‘ All around the lake, the sals are posted ‘“their respective trees; the rafts are baited ; tho fires are put out. -----j~ About sis or sevcn fiaces from each n ‘ ft > alit t le ‘o one side, crouches a sals a ™ d a mallet, and great sharp nai lg from eight to ton inchca W Absolute calm everywhere. The day branks. The crocodiles, which have been imprisoned in their slime for twen ty-four hours, must want to breathe. We wait. About 5 o’clock little eminences push themselves about the water. They re main awhile motionless, then they begin to move altogether. In the middle of the lake we behold a regular conciliabu luro. Twenty, forty, a hundred croco diles assemble, play about, dive and re appear alternately. Suddenly they all remain stilt Have they suspected something, or heard some noise? No; the breeze has wafted to them odors of flesh. A long black mass detaches itself from the assembly of saurians, and makes for the great slope. Others betake them selves to their favorite morning landing places. Norodom has seized his telescope, and watches the progress of the drama with ■ intense interest. All the rest of us look on breathlessly in silence. The biggest crocodile has edge of " * — gfjm *<**%&& - X H. A whole quarter 1 . by. Tho snout of the alligator leaves ! the water and now his fore-legs are on the raft. Everybody holds his breath. He keeps on climbing—slowly—very slowly. The bait is there, only twenty inches from his nose. He seizes it. At the very same instant the sais in the tree above him pulls the strings which oper ate the running nooses, and the reptile, caught at once by head and tail begins to struggle furiously. Immediately the other sais leaps forward, his hammer in one hand and a huge nailinthe other; and while the monster stretches his legs in trying to reach the water, the sais nails the right fore-foot to the rail. The worst of the job is over. In the twink ling of an eye, the right hind-foot is also nailed down. Then, boldly stepping over the alligator, the sais immediately nails the two left-feet also to the raft. Thus crucified, the saurian is. well muzzled, and his tail is fastened firmly with bamboo ropes. He is carried to Norodom and measured —seven and a half feet long. We remained on the lake shore two weeks, and during that time caught six teen more croc odiles, which were brought alive to Pnom-Penb, and then skillfully butchered. The Cambodians are very fond of cro codile flesh, and I must confess that I ate it myself without the least repugnance, Ordinarily it sells at two cents a pound in Cambodia-excopt when the animals are caught during a royal hunt, and then the "king’s crocodile meat” sells for four cents. Just on the same principle that, in France, President Grevy’s rabbits sell at four francs a pair, while yours or mine are worth only forty sous. _ It is nearly seven years since I enjoyed the hospitality of King Norodom, and I would not have thought of publishing this recitelof my hunting adventures had not public attention been again called to 22-* 1 ----- A London firm of pencil makers man¬ ufactures its shavings and sawdust into an article which they call the “dust of Lebanon.” It is sprinkled upon the fire to remove the unpleasant smell of cook ing notice able in . room ef.er . meat. The standing armies of Europe aggre 0:'" 0 — the mest - . •in the if DOLPHIN FOR DINNER. > Mmssss.'sss Ift'a cosy laboratory hidden away in one Af the corners of the national museum builling, crowded with skulls. bones, stuf|«d the |uimal skins, and various memorials of creation, a Washington Star repftcr came upon Mr. F. W. True, the curator of the department of mammals, justps life-saving he was station-keeper reading a telegram tho from New a on Jer.^v coast announcing that a porpoise had stranded there. “The men in the life saving service are instructed," said Mr. 'True, “to notify us of any strange creature that may be stranded. If we wisp it wo telegraph them to sew it up in a canvas bag and ship it to the museum by express, or send it any other way that may be convenient “Speaking of porpoises," continued the curator, “here is something that will interest you." As he spoke he took from a shelf behind his desk a black looking object, Ucd at the ends like a large bo logna sausage. slago “Itis a of porpoise," he went on. “That one is one-third beef and two-thirds porpoise. I have another specimen here of smoked porpoise,which you can try." The curator soon found the specimen he wanted. Tho meat was dark and the fibers very coarse. It was very dry and very hard—so hard that the curator had to use a hatchet to chip of! pieces of It. “The oil has not been taken out,’’he ®a he handed a morsel to the ro potter to try, “and that gives it a strong taste, which might be disagreeable to a person with a sensitive palate.’’ The reporter ate his piece of porpoise with as much facial composure as possi ble. It had a flavor something like a amoked honing nultiplied by a hundred, After regaling himself in this manner, the reporter inquired tor further particu Ihrs concerning porpoise meat. “There is a company in Philadelphia," mid Mr. True, “engaged in the business >1 preparing the flesh of the porpoise for - ■s ; . ■■■ used to be considered one of the delica cies of the king’s table. It is mentioned in L’Estrange’s household book." “Has porpoise been sold inthePhila delphia market as porpoise?’’ ' “I think the flesh was introduced under the name of buffalo. It is dark like buffalo meat, and has a gamy look snd flavor, but,” continued Mr. True with a smile, “during Lent it was intro duced as porpoise, I received a letter from a gentleman interested in the. trade asking if it could not be introduced as a food which might be eaten in Lent, Among scientific men tho porpoise,is not, of course, known as a fish, but the scien tific and the ecclesiastical definitions of a fish may not, of course, be based upon the same distinctions. There wns once, during the middle ages, a great controversy as to whether the otter could be eaten in Lent. It was held that creatures that swam in the water were fish, and it was decided, I believe, that the otter could be eaten without viola tion of the rules of Lent. ” “What do you think of the quality of the flesh.” “The quality is as good as any in the market. It is not tender, of course, like the meat of animals bred especially for the market. The porpoises have to fight for existence, and that makes them tough. There is no reason why this meat should not be cheap.” “Porpoiso is not a new dish?” sug gested the reporter. “No. It has always been considered fit for food. The porpoise lives on fish, and eats only live fish. In the Arctio regions, you know, the natives live on white whales, eating fat and all. The Indians on the east coast of Maine have a fishery for porpoises, and eat their flesh. Inifactthe Indians both on our east, and on our west coast hunt the eehL por poie. I, i. . mette, of f entirely. Three centuries ago when the it n prophesying that por „ be generally eaten. I >me of the milk of the porpoise May. It is very thick, like •to -W~r m the who, VOL. V. New Series. No. 20. them up snd get the oil from them ta * find a market. About a year age a company was formed at Capo May, New Jersey, for the purpose of obtain ing porpoise oil and leather. This com pany, I believe, has not succeeded well, One of tho men interested in the com pany went to Hatteras and leased the fishery there for five years—leasing the grounds, the fishermen and everything - paying at a certain rate for every por poise caught. lie has his tanners and his apparatus for taking out the oil. He saw that the fleah might bo of someuae, and has been successful iu introducing it in the Philadelphia market. 1 ’ “The porpoises are caught In Beta. Twc high poles are erected on tho beach about four miles apart. Men are eta tinned at these polos on the lookout, and when the porpoises pass into the fishing ground, between these poles, the lflok out shows a signal flag. There are • two boats some distance out, which separate obliqLy giving foward out nets as they proceed' other boat, further inshore These boats in turn move toward the shore, paying out their nets, and the result is the por poises are soon surrounded, imprisoned in a huge pound of strong netting with coarse meshos. These nets are not drawn to the shore. Sometimes there will be 800 or 400 porpoises in the en closure. If they were stampeded, as they might be by an attempt to draw the net to the shore, they would make a break altogether for one point in the net and break through it. They are sim ply kept in the pound, and boats put out from the shore with smaller nets, with which they take out thirty or forty at a time. The method is very much Ilk that u.efi in catching tunnies at fisheries on the Mediterranean. This winter the man who has gone into the enterprise expects to get 1,200 porpoises. They are six, seven and eight feet long, and of the kind known as the bottle-nosed dol¬ phin. As soon as they are caught flayers take off their hides, which are sent to New Jersey and made into excellent le * U,er ’”.............. ‘ “Yes. Porpoise boots in London cost threo times as much as any other. The leather is’perfectly water proof. If the flaying is done carefully a pretty big piece of leather con bo obtained from each porpoise—enough to make several pairs of boors. One great difficulty, I believe, is to get a tanner who knows how to treat the hide properly. It has to be tanned with some peculiar process, From one porpoise thirty or forty pounds 0 f edible flesh can be obtained. I had a steak cut from a porpoise which was re eeived hero, and it was cooked for me at the restaurant. It was very dark in color because I had not let the blood out, but it was, nevertheless, quite palatable, The flesh of that portion," said the eu rator, pointing out on a picture of a por poise the region near tho tail, “is very tough, on account of the ligaments that run through it, the muscles that operate the tail. It is proposed, I believe, to utilize these ligaments in making glue, Then every part of the porpoise will bo used for something, the hide, the oil and the flesh. The skeletons are left now on the beach, but they can be used for for tilizing purposes. Take some more,” said the curator, again passing the smoked porpoise, but the reporter, ex cueing himself on a plea of business els* were, took his leave. -—-/ The Enrth’* Magnetic Force. Says the Hordogiml News: Every thing on the earth and in the air above i 8 permeated with the earth's magnetic force-it goes through your clothes, it penetrates your bodies, it saturates your brains, it is a part of life itself. Gaus, the illustrious German astronomer, has computed—taking as a unit of his meas urement a magnet fourteen inches long, one inch wide, one-fourth inch thick, weighing JU* one pound, made of the hardest possible-the earth’* magnetic force as power of the earth 42,810,000,000,000, ^distributed 000,000 tons. If this magnetism were “ throughout the mass of the *— M’ H I M-a ’ ] 1 to an . wmm PLAYING THE FIDDLE. And L'slnz a Visiting Csurd, I ntbrcllst and Shoe for a Bow. I reached tho city of Cologne (writes' the Rev. Edward Abbott) by steamer down the Rhine at 8 in the afternoon This gave me an hour before dark in! which to visit the great cathedral, whose mfty spires bad been before me since twenty miles away. Then I had an hour for dinner, which" I ate with great nest at the hotel du Dom, nearly opposite the cathedral. Two hours and a half were then left before I was to take the night express for Brussels. What should I do in that two hours and a half? The por tier to whom I addressed this question said I had better go around to the cafe Chantant for an hour. So I told him to lead tho way. The cafo Chantant I found to be a large room or small hall, which¬ ever one might please to call it. At one end was a simple stage, like a concert platform. The floor was filled with small square tobies, with two or three chairs at each table. The chairs were nearly all filled with people, men and woman, of *> very respectable aspect. The scene was strange, but orderly and proper; and toe concert, which I stayed an hour to enjoy,! was of a high musical order. “i The piece on the programme which ( entertained me the mest was a perform¬ ance on the violin. It had just begun as I entered the room. The perforate r was , handsome young fsllow, dressed in a grotesque suit of many colors,and he was talking away to the audience as I camei in in a very animated manner. It seemed, as nearly as I could understand him, tnat he had lost Ms violin bow, and un¬ less he could find some substitute for iti he could not do his part in the concert.; Did any of his audience happen to have' a violin bow with them? No! ? Well,t that was too bad! What should he do? Would anything else answer instead of a bow? Couldn’t somebody lend him something? etc. Of course all this was made up. The object of the violinist was to get hold of some nondescript ob¬ jects with which he could play on his violin inste.vd of a bow, and to show hiir lki y. and all his talk, was simply to en tertoin his audience so visiting card—a common, plain card. The violinist took it,looked at it a moment inquiringly, tried its edge with his finger, and then applied the edge to the strings of his instrument. * It an¬ swered tho purpose very well, and he played quite a nice tune. At the end *...... there was a burst of applause. Then he called for something else, to see, he said, If he could not do a little better. j An officer of the army, who was sitting a car the stage, passed up his sword, and with the sword for a how the clever young violinist, after a moment or two’s experi¬ menting, played another nice tune, over which there was mere applause, louder than before. Then he handed the sword back to the officer, and asked for some¬ thing else. A lady handed up an urn orella. An umbrella? How could any one play on the violin with an umbrella? But this man did. He opened the um¬ brella, and, finding a smooth place a few inches in length on the handle, went to work with it with ease, and succeeded surprisingly well. The applause when he had finished was heartier than ever, and what had been before a scene of mere amusement on the part of the audience seemed to rise into something like admi ration. And now the violinist good naturedly offered to try once more. And what do you think was handed up to him this time? A shoe; an old shoe! Surely ho would have to give up now. For a moment he looked as if he would. After examining the shoe with care fora moment, the violinist found a place on the inner side, L^l «.a U™ toe, where the projecting solo furnished » d“>rt, shar P When he M found that, and felt it with his finger, he looked up with a pleased expression, »* if 40 ®ay, I guess that will do. > And do it did; for with the shoe for a violin bow he went on and played a tripping tone that set sverybody’s feet agoing, end -be. he tad «.W»d Ulled ttetec with a deafening round of applause. jasausMs baskSand ner Be carried a little two Towei pence to pay for it Finally Bui he anoZ was to go Mone. ' 1 . imo, uz ■ : njmlito Mmm
