The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-29
SNAKE SENT HIM ny MAIL.
MIR. STerry. whom 1t Tried to lite,
Thinks Ii May BE a CoId-BIoOded
From the New York Sun,

Thinks Ii May BE a CoId-BIooded
Asp.
From the New York sun
This is a snake story, which the man
who is most concerned regards as i'm
portant. on Monday afternoon batch
of mail matter was brought TO the office
of Weaver & Sterry. wholesale druggists
at 70 Pine street. A clerk had taken II
from the FIRMS lock box at the postoftice.
George Z. Sterry. Jr.. secretary Of the
company, found addressed 10 him pack
age about three inches long and about
three-fourths of an inch deep and wide.
II was wrapped in a sheet of white note
paper, and the address was written i'm &
faded dark ink in what appeared to be a
mans hand. a series of small punctures
in the package looked as # they had
been made by pin. Inside was a jewel
er's pasteboard box with the name scrap
ed off.
When Mr.. Sterry, removed the cover a
brownish thin snake about six inches long
struck at his left wrist The snake land
ed fairy, but didn't bite Mr. Sterry jump
ed and let out a yell, and the snake drop
ped to the floor.
A half dozen clerks came in on the run.
See that snake?" yelled Mr Sterrv.
step on him, somebody! He tried TO bite
me, and he's scared me almost to DEATH
Hold on there" said one of the clerks,
who wasn't afraid of snakes. I'm save
Aim alive"
Somebody brought a small pair of
tweezers and a bottle with a wide neck,
and after a number of attempts, which
the snake resented by kissing and DART
ing out its tongue, the men succeeded in
picking up the snake by the tail and put
ting it in the bottle.
The next day Mr. Sterry took the snake
over in the bottle to William r. Hoyt. a
druggist, at 416 Bedford avenue, Williams
burg, a friend of his who had had soma
experience with snakes. The druggist
looked the snake over and said he thought
it might be an asp.
1T looks as if il might have come from
some foreign country he said I'm sure
l never saw any snake like it in this
country"
At this inspection, says Mr. Hoyt. the
snake began 90 show sings of anger, and
its fiat head swelled into a hoodlike shape
The men looked in an encyclopaedia and
came 20 the conclusion that they prob
ably had an asp in the bottle.
IF any one meant to play a joke on
me-" said Mr.. Sterry yesterday, that was
pretty mean way 20 do it, IT, as Mr.
Hoyt says, the snake is an asp and ven
oilouS, tuen tne dHdlr is pretty serious.
can't imagine who in the world would
want to do me harm, anyway"
MIR. Sterry had kept the box and cover.
and he took them out to show them to
the Sun reporter. 1t was then discovered
that what at first appeared TO be pine
street in the address on the wrapper was
really Pine street." Mr.. Sterry said he
couldn't recognize anything familiar in the
handwriting.
There were three postmarks on the COW
er. Two of them were undecipherab'.
but the third read: "P. o. N. Y. 4-22-s9-2
P" The first two seemed to be stamps of
the general postoffice.
Il am going to try to trace The sender
of this said Mr.. Sterry.
A Sun reporter saw the snake at Mr..
Hoyt's drug store. The snake was about
six inches long, near quarter of an inch
in diameter, with narrow brown trans
verse stripes on its back, some Of the
stripes being lighter in shade than the
others. The head was small and the
SNAKE refused to show any signs OF a
hood at the time.