St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-15
And Are Positive That It Was
a TWelve-FOot Ana s
cOnda. ~
But They Were Finally Per-
suaded 1t Was a Case OF
Jim-Jams.
Next Day, However, HIS
Snakeship Was Found
Frozen Stiff.


an order to supply the Chicago fair with
a complete assortment OF reptiles. lhey
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 loIts
over his shop, where he always mas
pretty fair supply of anacondas. cobras
and the like. Two weeks ago he had
nearly 200 snakes in the boxes In the
loft says the New York Sun. Most OF
them were huge creatures from ten 10
twenty feet long, members of the faml-
lies of boas and pythons.
The day before he shipped them to
Chicago one of the big boxes containing
a few anacondas was left open, and
when nc one was watching the anacon--
das pushed back the lid and craWled
sleepily and lazily along the floor. Inc
building is old and has good, many
holes in the walls. The snakes slipped
through one of these holes ana got OUT
on the roof of an extension OF the Dulid-
ing in full view OF the rear OF tle NC,
Auley mission. Some one leaning from
a 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 a pretty harmless creature. with Smali
interest IN what is happening around
him.
Mr.. Burns made a careful count OF all
his snakes. He was a good deal an
moved when he found that one anaconda
was missing. Roosevelt street is
densely populated neighborhood, WIN
crowded tenementS on every size. AS
long as the anaconda stayed In the open
air he would do no harm. But II 1t got
into tenement fiat and coiled its huge
BODY in some warm place until it was
thoroughly thaWed out we'll! Mr.
Burns didn't like to finish the specula-
ton. The anaconda is constructor,
and is very courageous. 1t will coil It's
huge body around any human being-a
child in a cradle or man foolish
enough to attack 1t unarmed.
About year ago Burns had had a
pretty hard fight 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 be-
tween the wall and the plastering had
got into the kitchen of one of the apart
ments of tenement next door. There
was kettle. bottom upward, ON the
floor under the sink, and the anaconda
managed to slip itself under the
kettle was 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 mouse
under the kettle, She was bravy
woman. SO she gave the kettle mlghta
| kick, gave scream and jumped on
| chair, The kettle rolled over and she
| saw that 1t was full of snake. The
agitation of the neighborhood caused by
| her wells and shouts did not SuDSlde Tor
several hours.
Mr.. Burns had this incident in mind
| when he realized that one of his twelve
foot anacondas was loose in the neigh
borhood. He did not send out an alarm,
because 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 be-
gan to search everywhere as best as he
could. AS day after day passed with
no news of the anaconda his alarm
grew. The anaconda, he thought, had
found warm place. and was gradually
| thaWing out and getting ready to get
| into the newspapers for homicide.
The first news of 1t came the middle
| of last week. 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 gas lamp almost IN
front of the door. Toward 9 o'clock the
other evening two of these 'longshore-
| ,.on,, 70 iYoD ahOnt all theV cOnld
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-
geel' and they came tumbling back
into the saloon with their eyes bullying.
whats the matter?" said every
body.
The men couldn't speak for minute.
| Then they said: "a Snake!'
This caused wild shout Of laughter.
But the men sWore that the snake was
not of that kind. I'VE 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, after few more drinks, they de-
cided that they had been mistaken.
Nothing more was heard of the ana
conda until Saturday morning. 1t was
rather early when two laborerS from
the department of public works came
with their tools to the manhole at Roose-
Welt and Front streets. They took off
the cover and let down ladder into
the sewer. and one of them descended
with pick and shovel. He attacked
the frozen mud at the bottom of the
manhole. Pretty soon his companion
on the surface heard series Of mutf1ed
wells from the bottom of the manhole.
"Whoop! Whoop! Huliy gee!"
"What's the matter?; he asked.
"Let down that LADDER
He let down the ladder, and in jIffv
the other man was OH the surface.
There's snake down there" he said,
"the biggest L ever see."
The two men consulted, and finally
sent for the local authority upon snakes,
Mr.. Burns. AS soon as they told him
he knew that his anaconda had been
found. He went down the ladder, and
there, sure enough. was his anaconda
frozen hard in the mud. He dug it out
and brought its stiff body to the surface.
1t was twelve feet long, with head
about four inches long. Its body was
much swollen, being nearly twice as
thick as it's normal diameter of eight
innheS The middle of the body was