The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-04-14
WAS a GENUINE SNAKE.
a TWELvE-FOOT ANACONDA
SLIPS DOWN a CUTTER.
Two Old Sailors Were Positive He Was q
Snake and tho Next Day the Rep
tile Was Found FroSA.
Stiff In the Sewer.

Stir In the Sewer.
Last winter Donald Burns, the ami
nal dealer, got an order to supply
the Chicago fair with complete
assortment Of reptiles, according to
the New York Sun. They wanted
two Or three specimens of every kind
Of snake in the world, and Captain
Burns has been doing his best to come
up to the order. He has been send
ing everywhere for snakes, and has
been gathering them together in the
lofts over his shop, where he always
has q pretty fair supply OF anacon-
das, cobras and the like. At last
he had nearly twenty snakes in
the boxes in the loft Most of them
were huge creatures from ten to
twenty feet long, members of the
families of boas and pythons
The day before he shipped them to
Chicago one of the big boxes contain
ing few anacondas was left open,
and when no one was watching the
anacondas pushed back the lid and
crawled sleepily and lazily along 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 out on the roof
OF an extension of the building in
full view of the rear of the McAuley
Mission. Some one leaning from q
back window of tenement gave the
alarm, and Burns and his assistants
were soon out on the roof with bags
and lassoes. The anacondas gave
them no trouble. In cold weather an
anaconda is pretty harmless crea-
ture with small interest in what is
happening around him.
Mr.. Burns made careful count of
all his snakes. He was a good deal
annoyed when he found that one an
aconda was missing. Roosevelt street
is densely populated neighborhood,
with crowded tenements on every
side. AS long as the anaconda stayed
in the open air it would do no harm.
But If it got into tenement fat and
coiled it's huge body in some warm
place until it was thoroughly
thawed out-well! Mr.. Burns didn't
like to finish the speculation. The
anaconda is constructor and is very
courageous. 1t will coil it's huge
body around any human being
child in the cradle Or a man foolish
enough to attack it unarmed.
About year ago Burns had had
pretty bad fright OF this sort. One of
his anacondas got away and could
not be found. It had slipped through
a hole in, the wall, and by crawling
between the wall and the plastering
had got into the kitchen of one of the
apartments of a tenement next door.
There was kettle, bottom upward,
on the floor under the sink, and the
anaconda managed to slip under this
and pack it's coils away until the ket-
tie was just full The woman of the
apartments came in aud was working
at the sink She noticed that the cat
was alarmed about something, and
decided that there was mouse under
the kettle She was brave woman.
So she gave the kettle mighty kick,
gave a 'scream and jumped on chair.
The kettle rolled over, and she saw
that it was full of snake. The agita-
ton of the neighborhood caused by
her yells and shouts did not subside
for several hours.
Mr.. Burns had this incident in mind
when he realized that one of his
twelve-fOot anacondas was loose in
the ncighborhood. He did not send
out an alarm because he knew that
all Roosevelt street would pick up it's
skirt and coat tails and babies and fly
and return not until the snake was
found. But be began to search every
where as best he could. AS day after
day passed with no news of the ana
conda his alarm grew. The anaconda,
he thought, had found warm place,
and was gradually thawing out and
getting ready to get into the news
papers for homicide.
There is saloon little further
down Roosevelt street where crowd
OF 'longshoremen is always to be
found. They are stout drinkers, and
toward midnight make Roosevelt
street gay. There is a gas lamp
almost in front of the door. Toward
9 o'clock the other evening two of
these 'longshoremen, having taken
about all they could carry, pushed
their way unsteadily into the street.
The door had hardly closed behind
them when those on the inside heard
two terrific yells. "Whoop-whoop-o-
a-gee" and they came tumbling back
into the saloon with their eyes bulg-
ing.
whats the mat ter?" said every
body.
The men couldn't speak for min
ute. Then they said: IA snakev
This caused a wild shout of laugh
ter. But the men swore that the
snake was not of that kind. eve
saw it slipping along in the gutter, :"
said one of them. ..It was fifteen feet
long, and was as big around as any
two arms in the crowd" But they
were so heartily laughed at that they
decided that they had been mistaken.
Nothing more was heard of the
anaconda until morning. It was
rather early when two laborers from
the department. Of public works came
with their tools to the man-hole at
Roosevelt and Front streets. They
took OF the cover and let down lad
der into this sewer, and one of them
descended with pick and shovel.
T. IL 4 4