The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-06-28
A rerrihie snaEe

4 new snake, called the echis carinata
| which is the first specimen OF its race
| seen in England and of which we have
no specimen here, Is attracting crowds to
| the Regents Park. London, and dividing
| sensation with Oscar Wilde in his new
| sheared and common sense form. 1t is
about foot and half long, and the
color is dingy gray. 1t is the Geadliest
Of created things, for it carries in Its tiny
| head the secret of destroying life with
the sudden rapidity of lightning and the
concentrated agony of all poisons. This
| king OF the asps is more dangerous than
| the cobra or the kerait, ior it 1t does not
turn and run like the one or flash into
concealment like the other, but with
! fearless pluck gives flight, aud pitches
| its eighteen inches of lengtL against any
conner. A stroke of stick will break
1t IN two, sr stone will smash it, but
such is Its venoElous malignily that il
viii challenge attack by every device in
its pow r, stalking its own life on the
| mere chancs OF its adversary coming
within the little circle of itsI reach. At
| most, The radius of that circle is twelve
inches, out within it at any point lies
death, and in the bare hope Of hand or
foot trespassing within its reach the
echis throws its body into figure-of-
eight coil, and, attracting attention by
rubbing its loops together, which, from
the roughness of the scales (hence the
epithet carinatal makes rustling sound,
erect5 its head In the. center, and awaits
attack. No one kS1ing once encount-
cred this terrible little creature can ever
forget its truculent aspect when aroused
its eagerly aggressive air; its restless
coils, which, in Sconstant motion one
over another, and rustling ominously
all the time, bring ii nearer and nearer
to the object OF its Jury Its eye, malIg-
nsnt even beyond those of other vipers !;
and then the InconcelYahle rapidity of
its stroke. The eehis does not wait to
strike until il is within striking distance
bat vents is malice in repe atedly dart
ing at nothing, hoping To aggravate its
antagonist into coming 10 closer quar-
tiers, or more probably as mere expires
sion of its own uncomfortable vicious
ness.
A diary of its daily career finds it II
the morning. basking in the sun. where
it reYels until aroused To sudden anger
by a football. 1t then coils itself M so
that mans hand might cover ii, and
waits. The needless victim approaches,
disregards The rustling at his feet, and
the next instant goes staggering from the
path, for he has felt the death-bite and
is doomed. The echis never misses its
aim. The bitten man is given few
moments. The swift venom striks the
life instantly from his blood; his limbs
become paralyzed, his eyes dizzy, he
reels as he walks, suddenly stops, cluch-
es at something, and falls. This is GER
tainly the perfection of death craft BY
flash of electricity man can kill Iiv-
ing creature as instantly as if il had been
struck by lightning, or invoking the dis.
coveries of chemists, can. dissolve and
destroy life with all the terrible circum-
stances of vegetable or mineral poison.
But these are the results of science, II
borIousIy acquired by the cooperation
OF generations of euman beings,