Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-17
A SNAKE BENT ON MURDER.
kidnapping Makes n Fiend of a
Respectable Anaconda.
fron "a Neln Yerk Sln,

5toou tWenLy-SiX Ieeb llgn on Tue up vi LIS
tail, II ne had ever assumed that posture,
and immediately after one OF his
monthly luncheons of monkey would
have been described. had he been an Al
derman, as shaving presence" a sort OF
lumpy stoutness. There was nothing Vicl-
Gus about him, and he asked little of lie.
He wanted his monkey regularly, with,
perhaps, on gala days young Brazilian,
though in the matter of natives he was
temperate. Although he had never tack
led Connecticut cruiler or Harlem
goat, any of his friends would have back
ed mis- digestion at heavy ODDS against
Wnateyer might have been produced,
not barring tenpenny pals. DE loved TO
lie baskIng in the sun on the banks OF
the slumDerous Amazon and be lulled 10
soft repose by the scolding OF shrewish
macaWs and paroQuets, VINO hated MN,
and whose hatred he fondly cherished
He was a gentle, cheerful snake, having
in all the twenty odd feet Of his bosom
not single grain OF ill-will or bitterness
toward the world.
BY series of infamous outraRes this
same anaconda has been transformed
from the peaceful, useful citizen he once
was into an incarnation OF all that Is
devilish. His one ambition now is to kill
everything that is alive and within his
reach. His naturally mild nature has
been turned to gall and NORWOOD. and
he hates the world and all that live
therein.
1t was beautiful, hot day when mis-
troubles began, and only few months
ago. He never Ielt in better spirits in his
life. He had just dined off young monkey,
whose bones cracked lusciously as they
squeezed through the good snakes smil-
ing mouth. He had stretched himself out
and curled himself up costly, with tue
SUMS rays sitting warmly down upon him
through the trees overhead. The paro-
quets and macaws were unusually Vlru-
lent in their abuse, and he had prepared
to enjoy himself thoroughly.
But he had barely got himself COM
fortably nestled together when he became
conscious OF an annoyance. 1t felt as
though something was prOdding him In
| the fleshy part OF the waist, where the
monkey lay. He raised his head laZily
and not unkindly, and with an Goblet
up" expression in his sleepy eyes. Then
suddenly there began that series of infa-
mics which have made him the nissan
thrOpe he now is. He felt a sharp, rude
slap about the head, something frightened
| like wise about his throat, and before he
! could pull himself together for re-
sistance he felt himself dragged along the
| ground. Then all the indignity of the
insult burst upon him, and he let forth his
| fury. He writhed and struggled and
| dashed the ground and the foliage all
about with his whip-like tail. But it
was useless. On ne went, dragged ire
sistibly, unrelentingly on. Through the
| film which the tight rope about his neck
| cast over his eyes he could see
dimly that he was drawn at the
end of a long rope, at the
other end of which were four or five Bra
lillian natives, Juggling with all their
might-those same natives whom he had
often refrained, partly for hygienic rea-
| sons to be sure, but whom he had never
theless refrained all the same from eat
ing. Oh, how he would have liked to have
| one OF them in his embrace just then!
How be would haYe loved to coil fondly
about him and gaze down into his eyes as
they gradually popped out of their
sockets!
BUTT was not to be-not then, at least.
1t was the enemy's day, and they made
the most of it. lrresIstibly the furious
anaconda was dragged to hideOus trap
of bamboo, Unto which he was thrust
writhing and reaching in vain for the
waists of his tormentors. Then heavy
canvas was wrapped about him,
| and the canvas was wound
about with fold after fold of
cord. And in this humiliating condition,
| a mere bundle, in fact, one Of the most re-
spected members Of upper Amazon snake
society was slung on pole and carried
mile after mile on the shoulders of jog
ging natives, whose ribs he could have
| crushed with a single twist.
There the bundle was put into a box,
over the top of which heavy Stats were
nailed, and then, and only then. the cow
ardly captors reached through and cut
the cords and the canvas, and trans
formed the package into prisoner.
AS such prisoner he was conveyed
across the ocean to the city of New York,
| and then and there transferred for val
liable consideration to one Donald Burns,
OF Is Roosevelt street, to be his individual
| property. But it was not wholly into
| peaceful possession that Mr.. Burns was
to come. During those many wretched
weeks of injury and abuse all he venom
and deviltry of his race had been concen-
trating in that formerly amiable reptiles
being. He was only hiding his time, and
his time came last Thursday night.
&. w, Donaldson, who is another dealer
in snake flesh and blood and who takes it
and exhibits it neartlessIy at country
fairs, had been dickering with Mr.. Burns,
and finally a bargain was struck. The
formerly excellent but now wholly aban-
doned anaconda was knocked down To Mr..
Donaldson for the sum of $500, in hand
| paid, ana was 10 be delivered to the pur-
chaser at Mansfield, Ohio. some time this
week. Mr.. Burns had decided to make the
shipment on Friday; SO on the evening OF
the day before he moved the box contain
| ing the anaconda from an inner room
into the outer room of his store. 1t was
his intention to transfer the snake into
another box for shipment the first thing
this morning. In his haste to leave on
Thursday evening, however. he did not
observe the fatal fact that the cover to
the box containing the stranger from
Brazil was loose.
The door OF the store was locked at last
and the steps OF tins proprietor were
heard growing fainter and fainter down
THE street. The room grew darker and
darker. The canarIes In the nu merous
cages on the shelves huddled close to-
getner and tucked their heads under their
wings; the two Rrmgdilos stretched
| themselves out comfortably on their
backs to sleep; -tLree brown Russian
bear cubs, only landed tle week
before from Archan%ei, curled them
selves up together, Rrunting and moaning
at their fate; the big monkey Ia the cage
on the floor and the three little monkeys in
the cages on the shtiges ceased their
chatter and scratched abseutly for fleas in
their sleep; even the parOquets and ma
caws gave vent to their spite only IN occa-
81 'nafhoarse croaks. The repose oi the
night had iully fallen upon MIR. Donald
Burns happy family.
The time OF the anaconda had coma