The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-04-19
SNAKES IN IRELAND.
Good st. Patrick's Work Undone by a
Tipsy American Snowman.

IL SoeunS GudI doOuI uNS years aSO %
Snowman named Wilson came from
America with show of living wild ami
mails. He landed his show at Queens
town, and gave exhibitions up through
Ireland with more or less success. But
one night at the little town of Amraugh,
in Tipperary, Mr.. Wilson got very
drunk and attempted to clean out his
own show. The constabulary forco
sought to interfere, and whether as
means of self-defense or in a spirit of
huE:or, know mott Mr.. Wilson turned
all the wild animals loose. OF course
this created terrible uproar, and for
week the neighborhood was in state of
wild excitement. The wild beasts were
duly either captured or killed, but for
three years no trace of the den of snakes
let loose on that memorable night could
be found. Meanwhile Mr.. Wilson went
to prison for two years.
Two years ago the people in the neigh
borhood of Amraugh began to miss
poultry and pigs. Several vagabonds
fell under suspicion, were apprehended,
and were locked up. But the depreda-
COIOlHuSus hnu lai hlSl
lad testified that upon returning late
one night from merry-making he had
seen the evil one in the guise of ser
pent making way with pig across
field. The village priest took the lad
in hand and questioned him closely,
but nothing could shake the fellows
testimony. About this time other peo-
Pile detected similar fends in the act of
like depredations, and at once arose
hue and cry that the spot was damned
one, and had been given over to the
devil for his diabolical practices. Spe-
cial prayers were said and the devil was
publicly denounced, but the depreda-
tions continued, and presently from
Castelraine, town twelve miles dis
tant, came word that his satanic majesty
had begun operations in that locality,
his victims in this instance and in this
place being sheep, not poultry and pigs.
In this dismal emergency the Bishop
was most properly appealed to, for the
parish priests were at their wits end
and their parishioners were well-nigh
crazed through fear. The Bishop prom
Used to investigate the affair, but in
stead of resorting to conventional eccle-
siastical methods, that holy and saga
cious man enlisted the services of two
shrewd detectives from Dublin, the in
tellectual center of Erin. The Bishop
fancied that the devil was doing his IN
holy work by proXy-not in the guise of
dragons and serpents, but in the person
of certain lawless characters too lazy to
work and just knavish enough to steal.
The detectives, laboring under this
heresy, made their designations quiet
ly, and in the course of fortnight re-
ported to their employer that the dep
relations at Castelraine and Amraugh
had indeed been committed by serpents,
the detectives themselves having seen
and watched the same upon three dis
tinct occasions seize, kill and carry off
their prey. The serpents were de-
scribed as dark of color and fully fifteen
feet in length. They killed their VIC
tins by coiling about their bodies.
The story was discradited by the
clergy and laity until, as good luck
would have it, a correspondent of the
Freeman's journal (at Dublin recalled
the significant, not to say portentous,
circumstance that the numerous and
divers species of snakes which had eS-
capped from the Wilson show about three
years previous had never been captured
Then of sudden the mystery was
cleared up and bands for the extermina-
of the monsters was speedily organized
among tho vengeful peasantry. Three
of the snakes were shortly thereafter
seen, pursued and killed in the bog east
of Amraugh; tho largest of the snakes
measured four feet: in the NAV of each
was found pullet. About month
| thereafter fourth snake was killed
near Castelraine; this snake upon being
cut open was found to contain very
many little snakes which Immediately
glided into the grass and escaped before
the astonished rustics could apprehend
them. Subsequently, stimulated by
the advertised reward of half a crown
and special dispensation for every
snake, alive or dead, the country peo-
pie caught eleven of the smaller snakes
none measuring more than seven
inches in length. Then the snakes
seemed to disappear, and, no further
| depredations being noted, the excite
ment gradually died out.
But it is now reported, after lapse of
two tranquil years, that snakes have
suddenly appeared at and around Bal
lingal, an agricultural region thirty
miles north of Castelraine, the country
seat of the Earl of Densloe. These
snakes are of a strange species; though
none have been captured, they are said
to be of enormous length, breadth, thick
ness, voracity and ferocity, and to make
noise when moving like the clatter OF
dice in box; they kill by biting, and
they have created great havoc among
the flocks of his Grace the Duke, as we'll
as in the coops and sites of the peasantry.
simultaneously serpents similar to the
Amraugh and Castelraine varmints have
appeared still further to the eastward,
and have caused such panic that the
country folks are afraid 20 venture out
of doors after nightfall.
The theory is that in five years the
reptiles let loose by the wretched Wilson
during his ribald drunken frenzy have
multiplied so numerously that mill
tant union of Church and State will be
necessary to restore the island to the