Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-05-22
Chance for En1erprising DarIsIes.

Chance for EHIeTPrising Dar'IEieS.
Seven thousand aligators, we are inform
| ed, have been purchased in the nelghbor-
hood of the city for shipment to Ireland by
the British steamer. They are of pretty
good growth, and were bought from acOn-tUb
traband at the rate of $3.50 per foot. Some
enterprising men might make this example
the basis o. "a thriving trade. AlligatOrs' %
skins, tat aud oil, are already known to- Il
have a marketable value; why may the ami
mails not be bred and hunted for them .---
! 1t seems rather odd, though, that these I
| reptiles should be sent to the land of st. nd
Patrick, especially if with any such view as
that just limited at. What hullabaloo it
would kick up were couple of these crea- ~
tures to be found disporting themselves u
some fine morning in the neighborhood of
the lake of Killarney! Och, weirasthru!
Wouldn't the world be coming to an end! 20
| The introduction of a few harmless I
snakes some years ago nearly effected that,
result already, as related IN the following
quotation from the Book Of Days; = e y 7oi
I'm 1881 Mr. James Cleland and Irish j
gentleman, being curious to, ascertain
whether the climate or soil of Ireland was
naturally destructive to the serpent tribe, 's
purchased half dozen of the common, ia
harmless English snake (natIir tOrplGtl) in
| Covent Garden market, IN London. Bring4A
ing them to ireland, he turned them out In ID
his garden, at Rath-gael, in the county Of ~
| Down; and in week afterward one of them
was killed at MileCross. about three miles
| distant. The persons into whose hands .
this strange monster fell hadnot the slight I;
est suspicion that it was snake, but con-
| sidering it curious kind of eel, they took
| it to Dr.aJ. l.. Drummond. celebrated gIs
Irish naturalist, who at once pronounced, q
the animal to be a reptile and not a fish,
The idea of a 'rale living sarpiut having
| Ill. a. -
very burial place of st. Patrick. caused an, p,
extraordinary sepsation of alarm among
the country peoples The most absurd ru-l
mors were freely circulated and credited. oi
One far-seelng clergyman preached, a. SER ,i-
mon, in which he cited this unfortunate
snake as the immediate commencement of
the millennium; while another saw in itadh.
type of the approach of the cholera mOrbus.
lOld prophecies were raked up, and all par
ties and sects, for once, united in believing q
that the snake foreshadowed the beginning
OF the end though they widely differed as
to what that end was TO be- Some more 0'
practically minded persons, however, SUBJ d
scribed acOnsiderable sum of money which Z,
they offered in rewards for the destruction
of any other snakes that might be found in
the district and three more of the snakes 81
were not long afterward killed within ,as7
few miles OF the garden where they, were
liberated. The remaining two snakes were y
Inever very, clearly. accounted for; but no
lldoubt they also fell victims to the reward.
The writer, who resided in that part of tlle .,
country at the time, wen remembers the E,
wild rumOrs among the more illiterate
classes, on the appearance Of those snakes,
and the bitter feeling of angry indignationD
4 f1expressed by educated persons against the d
livery fortunately them unknown+ peRnnR
sons who had dared to bring them TO Ire-,o.
land"
Now Iancy what would be the effect OFT
4 letting loose a fewlive alligatOrs In SINH %
tblar neighhorhaodlUN o. Ricgsns. soqaol