Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-02-17
MISCELLANY.
A GOOD SNAKE STORY,

to supply the lineage falT WIFI COihPlSVo
assortment of reptiles. They wanted two
or three specimens Of every kind of snake
in the world, and Capt. Burns has been
doing his best to come up to the order.
He has been sending everywhere for snakes,
and.has been gathering them together in
the lofts over his shop, where he always
has a pretty fair supply of anacondas, CO.
bras and the like Two weeks ago he had
nearly 200 snakes in the boxes in his loft.
Most of them we're huge creatures from ten
to twenty feet long, members of the tami-
lies of boas and pythcns.
The day before he shipped them TO Chi
cago one of the big boxes containing a 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
good many holes in the walls. The ana
condas 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
a back window of a tenement gave the
alarm, and Burns and his assistants were
soon out on the roof with bags and lassos
The anaconda gave them no trouble. In
cold weather an anaconda is pretty harm
less creature with small interest in what
is happening around him.
Mr.. Burns made a careful count OF all
his snakes. lie was good deal annoyed
when he found that one anaconda was miss
ing. Roosevelt street is densely popu-
lated neighbOrhOod, with crowded tene-
ments on every side As long as the ana
conda stayed in the open air it would do no
harm. But if it got into a tenement fiat
IT, Iy in
place until it was thoroughly thawed out
well. Mr.. Burns didn't like to finish the
speculation. The anaconda is a constructor
and is very courageous. 1t will coil its
hugh body around any human being-a
child in a cradle or man foolish en- ugh
to attack it unarmed.
About year ago Burns had pretty bad
fright of this sort. One of his anacondas
got away and could not be found 1t had
slipped through a hole in the wall, and by
crawling between the wall and the plaster
ing had got into the kitchen of one of the
apartments of a tenement next door.
There was a kettle bottom upward on the
floor under the sink, and the anaconda
managed to slip itself under this and pack
its coils away until the kettle vas just full
The woman of the apartment came in and
was working at the sink. She noticed that
the cat was alarmed about something, and
decided that there was a mouse under the
kettle. She was a brave woman. So she
gave the kettle mighty kick, gavea scream
and Jumped on chair. The kettle rolled
over and she saw that it was full of snake.
The agitation of the neighborhood caused
by her yels and shouts did not subside for
several hours.
Mr.. Burns had this indident in mind
e Ii .lVv.,
foot anacondas was loose in the neighbor-
hood He did not send out an alarm be-
cause he knew that all Roosevelt street
would pick up its skirts and coat tails and
babies and fly, and return not until the
snake was found. But he began to search
everywhere as best he could. AS day after
day passed and no news of the anaconda,
his alarm grew. The anaconda, he thought,
had found warm place, and was gradual
ly thawing out and getting ready to get in
to the newspapers for homicide.
The first news of it came the middle OF
last week. There is a saloon little fur
ther down Roosevelt street where crowd
of 'lOngshOremen is always to be found
They are stout drinkers, and toward mid
night make Roosevelt street very gay
There is gas lamp almost in front of the
door. Toward Q 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 then
when those on the inside heard two terrible
yells "Whoop- whoop-o -a-geem and they
came tumblng back into the saloon witt
their eyes bulging
Whats the matter?" said everybody
The men couldn't speak for a minute
Then they said: "a snake"
This caused a wild shout of laughter
But the men swore that the snake was moi
of that kind. "We saw it slipping along
in the gutter" said one of them. at wa
about fifteen feet long and was as bis
around as any two arms in the crowd
But they were so heartily laughed at that
after few more drinks, they decided tina
they had been mistaken.
Nothing more was heard of the anacon
da until Saturday morning. 1t was rather
early when two labOrers from the depart
ment of public works came with their tool'
to the manhOle at Roosevelt and From
streets. They took off the cover and LEI
down ladder into the sewer, and one o
them descended with a pick and shovel
He attacked the frozen mud at the bottom
of the manhole.
"Whoop! Whoop! Hully gee!"
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Let down that ladder"
He let down the ladder, and in jiffy thu
other man was on the surface. "There'
a snake down there" he said, "the bigges
l ever see."
The two men consulted, and finally sen
for the local authority upon snakes, Mr.
Burns. AS soon as they told him he knew
that his anaconda had been found. He wen
down the ladder, and there, sure enough
was his anaconda frozen hard in the mud
He dug it out and brought its stiff body t
the surface. 1t was about II feet long will
head about four inches long Its body
was much swollen, being nearly twice a.
thick as its normal diameter of eight inches
The middle of the body was especially dis
tended. Burns cut the anaconda open anC
found in the stomach the bodies of half {
dozen big sewer rats, which the anaconda
had not had time to digest before it wa
frozen to death.
The two 'longshoremen were vindicated
The anaconda had been slipping about tn
streets and had finally crawled into tn
sewer in search of food. 1t had fount
plenty of food, but it had also found death
in the freezing water The labcrers tool
the body to one of the dumping scows, AM
IL will % down the baV Mr. Rurns fel