The Press., 1889-08-01

lSSlGa .ETGfy TllGSeay ETGGlng. CNew York Herald, July 94th.l
 PYTHON IN TIE HOLD.
 There are two full grown pythons, male and female, on board the National Line steamer Denmark, which arrived from Lon- don yesterday. Mir. Python lies curled up in . box some two feet square and about eight inches deep, lying on top of some boilers in the cooks galley. The heat has not disturbed him in the least, for he has been engaged during the voyage in digest
 ing huge meal eaten just before he left
 London. He slept all the way over, and had not awakened when the ship reached
 her pier yesterday. Mrs. Python, to the1 best of Captain Rigby's belief,i is some-
 where in the bilge of the ship, between the inside and outside plates, but whether dead or alive nobody knows. She escaped from the box in which she was confined on
 Jnly 2, three days after the Denmark left
 London, and for awhile there was the live
 Hest kind of time on board the steamer.
 The boxes containing MT. and Mrs. Python were originally placed in the en-
 of the engine room. The slide at the top ' y open 3 couple of inches Mrs. Python
 had not made such glutton of herself as
 her mate and awoke to find the opening and glided through ag'.As.1sSf i.' ''..1 I l. The chief engineer, on going to the door of the engine room, was suddenly confront ed by the huge snake, which was fourteen feet long if an inch, and as big around as his arm. She had been attracted by the
 heat. The engineer gave one look. Then
 he made bee line for the opposite door.
 An officer, seeing his pale face, asked
 what the matter was, but he only caught
 one word in reply and that was 'ssnakes, y as the engineer hurried away. The officer
 hurried to the engine room, and was just in time to see the python's tail disappear
 through the grating, below which was the
 hold. Carpenter John Last and fireman
 grabbed the tail, but the snake was so oily
 that it slipped out of their fingers. The python had twined itself around an iron
 support and reached the hold. ' l The entire crew was by this time alarm. ed, and every one was armed with some tsort of weapon. ~='i' '9.' " 1 Besides the snakes there were over g
 score of other animals, all consigned to
 Frank J. Thompson of the Central Park Menagerie, where the pythons were going | There were twenty monkeys in cages, in
 ciuding eight of the dog faced variety, two
 one Opossum, wildcat and three bust
 cats. The monkeys, on hearing the com motion over the python's escape, set up {
 great chattering, the wildcat snarled ani
 forty three Spanish donkeys, in stalls or
 the same deck forward, prayed so that they could be heard three miles Fourteen full
 blooded and trained fox hounds confined in two pens near the donkeys added thei deep bays to the general din, and half
 dozen bull terriers who were tied to stanch ions in the center of the deck joined tn 1 chorus. For a time it seemed as if pan demonium had broken loose. Those ol deck heard the noise, but Captain Rigb, kept every man at his post, and the Der mark, which was like a floating menagerie ,, with her bowling, chattering, brayin
 cargo, steamed steadily on her course. The engineer had returned to the engin , room, but he looked apprehensively at tn grating, afraid that Mrs. Python would de eide to return. Finally John Last, tn
 carpenter, offered to search for the snake
 The fireman who had grasped the python tail in the engine room offered to go wit him. The others looked at the two me a g compassionately as they descended int q the hold, and the engineer, as he remen
 bered the reptiles gaping jaws, shuddered f Last carried a bag to put over Mrs. Py ython Q head. They found the snake lazily craw ? ing through an opening between the plates They grasped the reptiles tail, as before but pull as they would the python was to
 much for them, and they saw the end ( her tail disapper through the opening. Sh f did not come out again. If the python
 s alive she is thought to be coiled aroun . one of the pipes in the bilge. The chance
 of her surviving, however, are very sligh las the bilge is half full of stagnant wat, 't and oil. .s J, The officers and crew breathed mol r' freely when it was learned where MT 7, Python had secreted herself, and no furtl
 CT effort was made to capture her. The l. is no way of getting at her, except to r
 move some of the plates, and this wi o probably be done to-day. The case co 'r taining MT. Python was taken to the cook
 galley and placed on top of the boiler sr where he continued to snooze, unconscio1 g Eof the fate of his spouse.