JANUARY 2nd - Lord of the Beasts



On this day in 1890 Edward Avery McILHenny shot what is thought to be the largest American alligator at 19 feet and 2 inches. Dat’s a big gator. I once caught a lizard that was easily the length of my hand (and I have big hands), so I feel I can accurately assess what EA was going through as he killed such a monstrous beast. For a brief moment you feel as if the world of nature has opened up, revealing a giant staircase on a mountainside and that you have ascended those stairs all the way to the summit and stand there, alone and unchallenged as a master of all creatures. A lord of the beasts, if you will. But then you get stung by a wasp and realize that nature isn’t so easily dominated. Don’t think you can feel that way from catching a large lizard? Have you have ever done it? Didn’t think so. But maybe EA felt none of this. Maybe he just saw a way to immortalize himself in the annals of people who have killed large reptiles and so killed the beast for selfish personal gain. I doubt he was trying to save a room full of infants from being traumatized if a large lizard happen to crawl over them. I wasn’t either. I’m just saying...

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