EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPR

Waikato Times, Volume 492, Issue VIII, 15 July 1875, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPR

It is onr painful duty to chronicle an event, which has filled the editorial breast with pain, and cast quite a gloom over the little community residing in the immediate neighbourhood of this office. The event occurred about four p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. Little did we imagine when we penned the affecting lines which adorned our issue of Tuesday last, abput the greeti lizard, that in a few brief hours the interesting little cuss would have " gone from our gaze like a beautiful dream." Yet, alas ! such is the heartrending fact. During Monday night the reptile regarded our labors from the interior of his t glassy home with c&Jni resignation. The most ingenious attempts" flo f&o.use^hi^ attention signally ' failed. Wo i-#ad *fe* hiiH.v£sfte op our choicest liter ' ary morceaus, but "to- theSjast lie reposed at the \ ' bottom of his pickle-botde with stolid indifference to the gigantic preparations which were proceeding around him for the production of our issue of Tuesday. It was only when- our foreman commenced to lock-up the forms that the little stranger evinced the slightest inteiest in the proceedings, and we are firmly convinced that nothing less than a 32-ton gun would have disturbed his profound meditations. His Lizardbhip remained perfectly quiescent until about four p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, when we were startled by a loud and simultaneous cry from the printing office. Fearing that the establishment was on fire, we hastened to the spot, determined to do justice to the calamity in our next issue. What words can describe the anguish that filled our breast when we received the painful announcement from a punter's de^jl, ail Hreathjless with excitement, that The G^eebp. Lizird\haq .Escaped ! A sceae of the wildest commotion'' ensued. Printers ran hither and thither armed with column-rules, mallets, axes, brooms, and such other miscellaneous articles as were handy, and a rigorous search was prosecuted. Under the able superintendence of the Foreman, the typographical staff behaved with exemplary promptitude, while the editor and the literary staff, made skilful dispositions to cut off the creature's retreat. TJnder these trying circumstances all behaved with praiseworthy courage, but where all distinguished themselves'- it wduld be invidious to particularize. Suffice it to say 'that these most stupendous efforts -w«re unavailing*. ~* The dreadful catastrophe happened in this wise: — One of our youthful geniuses, whilst in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, Was engrossed in studying the reptile's habits, but in his enthusiasm he lost his self-possession and tilted the pickle-bottle over. Immediately the artful little cuss aroused himself from his torpor, and skedaddled with astounding alacrity into a heap of " pie." The alaroi having been given, he was promptly surrounded, and would have been recaptured, had he not, with rare tact, gone for one of the boys' legs. The juVenile, temporarily, losing self-command, uttered an Indian war-whoop, ancTsouajht refuge on the imposing- stone. Tbh lizard, taking advantage of the diversion, scuttled away into a hole. The way he managed this was eminently characteristic of the Maori chief whose soul was supposed to have transmigrated itself into the little reptile. A careful investigation of his retreat disclosed the fact that a portion of his tail protruded. We are therefore disposed to believe that the reptile resembles the ostrich in this particular. After a council of war, it was decided to attempt to drag him out, and a courageous student of natural history essayed the dangerous task. And here the deep cunning of the Maori spirit was revealed. ]No sooner had the pursuer touched his continuation, then he abandoned the appendage, and made tracks, leaving the -wriggling trophy in the hands of the astonished youth. The interesting little Lacerta aqilis will now resemble " Three Blind Mice," upon which the famous farmer's wife practised comparative anatomy. It has dawned upon the editorial mind that we have been the victim of a cruel sell. The green lizard was evidently not so green as he tried to make out. At any rate he was not so green as to miss an opportunity of escape, and his apparent torpor was most likely only assumed for the sake of throwing us off our guard. The reptile is now lost to science, but it is conbolatory to reflect that he has left his tail behind him. As Professor Owen was enabled to construct the dinornis %igantius from a single bone, so any ardent seeker after science may be enabled after a few years careful studp to reconstruct our lost lizard. If this should meet the eye of any such, the tail is at his service.