St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-02-23
Selected Story.
A GOOD SNAKE STORY.


IA i Il.anI' got an order to supply the
ftIs.'' . Fair with complete as
VA r invent OF reptiles. They wanted
so W. ,D or three specimens of every kind
Ell l W. v snake in the world, and Capt.
"a pnr @ has been doing his best to
r" " up to the order. He has been
rs oadinp everywhere for snakes, and
a. been gathering them together in
Se lofts over his shop, where he al
laws nv has pretty fair supply OF
nacondas, cobras and the like.
r~o weeks ago he had nearly 200
,nokes in the boxes in his loft. Most
e them were huge creatures from
IN 70 twenty feet long, members of
IA he families of boas and pythons.
# IT," Tbc dav before he shipped them to
m cb,raoo. one of the big boxes con-
LINING a few anacondas was left
# oncn and when no one was watch
gg the anacondas pushed back the
# ii and crawled speedily and lazily
x aIonp the floor. The building is old
& and has a good many holes in the
walls. The anacondas slipped
through one of these holes and got
nnt On the roof of an extension of
the building in full view OF the rear
n the McAuley Mission. Some one
leaning from a back window of a
tenement gave the alarm, and
A Burns and his assistants were soon
ont on the roof with bags and
y Iassos. The anacondas gave them no
Il trouble. In cold weather an ana
conda is pretty harmless creature,
With small interest in what is hap
neping around him.
Mr.. Burns makes a careful count
Y Of all his snakes. He was a good
Il deal annoyed when he found that
one anaconda was missing. Roose-
# Welt street is a densely populated
s neigbborhood, with crowded tene-
:. ments on every side. As long as the
anaconda stayed in the open air it
"A would do no harm. But if it got in
TO tenement fiat and coiled its
"A huge body in some warm place until
~ il was thoroughly thawed out
NJ we'll Mr.. Burns didn't like to finish
"A the speculation. The anaconda is a
constructor and is very courageous.
1t will coil its huge body around any
human being-a child in a cradle or
man foolish enough to attack it I'M
armed.
About year ago Burns had a
pretty bad fright of This sort. One
of his anacondas got away and
could not be found. 1t had slipped
through hole in the wall, and by
crawling between the wall and the
pIastering had got into the kitchen
of one of the apartments OF tene-
ment next door. There was kettle
3 bottom upward on the floor under
& the sink, and the anaconda managed
4 ~ slip itself under this and pack it's
4 coils away until the kettle was Just
81 full. The woman of the apartment
# came in and was working at the
u sink. She noticed that the cat was
~ Uidi HlNO SOiiiNlhiiik any
N decided that there was a mouse un-
X der the kettle. She was a brave
y woman. So she gave the kettle a
mighty kick, gave a scream and
81 jumped on chair The kettle rolled
q over and she saw that it was full oil
a snake. The agitation of the neigh.
borhood caused by her yells and
81 shouts did not subside for several
8 hours.
Mr.. Burns had this incident in
& mind when he realized that one o.
his twelve-foot anacondas was loose
IN the neighborhood. He did not
send out an alarm because he knew
that all Roosevelt street would pick
g up its skirts and coat tails and
4 babes and fly, and return not unit
the snake was found. But he begar
to search everywhere as best he
could. AS day after day passed and
no news came of the anaconda, his
alarm grew. The anaconda, he
thought, had found a warm place
and was gradually tina awning out and
getting ready to get into the news
papers for homicide.
The first news of it came the middle
OF last week. There is a saloon g
little further down Roosevelt street
where a crowd of 'longshoremen is
always to be found. They are stou,
drinkers, and toward midnight
make Roosevelt street very gay
mere is gas lamp almost in front
OF the door. Toward 9 O'Clock the
other evening two of these long
sinoremen, having taken about al
they could carry, pushed their way
unsteadily into the street.
he door had hardly closed be
nina them when those on the inside
heard two terrible yells. "Whoop
whoop-o-a.geel" and they came
tumbling back into the saloon with
thelr eyes bullying.
What's the matter!" said every
body.
The men couldn't speak for q
minute. Then they said: "A snake.
MS caused a wild shout o
laughter. But the men swore tina,
t tne snake was not of that kind
we saw it slipping along in the
gutter" said one of them. ut was
toout fifteen feet long and was a.
"'s around as any two arms in the
n,,e L. ,.-A. IL