Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-22
THE GILA Mons TER.
An Animal Combining the Horrid Looks
Of the Toad and Snake.

of the Toad and Snake.
Probably you want to know why the
messenger boy you sent through Nassau
street recently was late. The explanation
is very simple. He stopped to look at the
ella monster in the window of 1913.
The ella monster is fat, loose skinned
lizard. His skin is dirty white, covered
with tolerably regular stripes and spots of
dirty black. Each scale has in the middle
a round knot like the head of nail
driven into the skin. From this the
scientists have named it Heloderma Hor-
ridum, the horrid nail-skinned thing.
One spectator said: sit looks like lizard
covered with beads" Another said: sit
looks as if it was made by hand-knltted. -
He had it right. Any lady who reads
this can go down on Nassau street, take
few notes of the pattern and knit her a
ella monster. 1t would be the simplest
kind of knitting, for there is no shape to
the thing, except about the feet. When
made, let the children play with it few
days to get it dirty, and take out what
ever remnants of crispness or elegance
there may have heen in it. Then put it
on your parlor table and your friends will
think you have real live ella monster
That is, they will think it is alive if
Uuty KNOW JIG dulDidi. Ii uot, tuey Inlay
expect to see it move. But the ella mon
ster does not believe in moving. You
cannot even see it breathe as i. lies there
hour it stirs its head slightly, d always
surprises the spectators by giving this
evidence of life.
1t is in glass box, about Is inches
long, which does rot quite give it room to
- til ! l,,ll 1l I +
inches thick, and might be twice that ii
the folds of the skin were stretched out by
big dinner In the stomach. Its tail
intention of being two feet long, but grows
point inside of inches. Its nose is
round and fat.
Altogether the ella monster combines ali
the bad looks of the toad and the snake,
and adds a few of its own.
It's name should be pronounced Hela,
unless you know how to give the G the
sound which CHI has in German.
The ella monster has always had the
reputation OF being poisonous among the
Indians of the south west, where It's home
is, but scientific men have laughed at the
idea. They never knew such thing as a
poisonous lizard. A few years ago, how
ever, a professor was dissecting one which
had died in museum. and found an I'M
mistakabl poison fang in its jaw. Some
of the monsters were made to bite small
animals, which PROMPTLY died. After
this the museum attendants, WHO had been
accustomed TO handling them as familiar
ly as so many frogs, became wonderfully
respectful.
There were from two to dozen specta-
tors gathered about the window all
through Thursday afternoon. Every
passer stopped to look at it., Though most
of them had no idea what it was, except
for the card in the window giving the
creatures name a few. when question
ed, had more definite ideas.
Its Chilly mons ter,'' said one man
They say its breath poison"
They say its Ghilla monster. It's
after the snake species, | suppose said
another
ats sumpin' like an alligator, only the
color - was 17-year- old boys idea.
cts a cross between snake and
lizard. This is a small one. though.
have seen them a good deal larger In Ari
zona,'' said man who had been there.
at S an alligator, SAID the messenger
boy.
Common sort of an aligator?' asked
a stander-by.
"Nc."
"WelI, what is there remarkable about
it? Why Fave they put it up tbere?'
Don't know" A pause. First one
they got, guess.
"A species of crocodile was what
another man called it.
Its the Ghyla monster they talk of
so,'' SAID middie-aged man. Some say
it's poisonous, others not"
That's the animal that bit that man
that professor was another startling
contribution to the find of information.
"Whar professor? Where?"
Uptown, somewhere or other"
New York SIM