The Winslow mail., 1899-07-20
SNAKE YAKN OF A CuOK.
1t Fully Explains the Capture of an
EiShteen-FOot MOccasin
ShipbOard.

The three-masted schooner William
+. Campbell had a lively time down in
the West Indies a little while ago. AS
the talkative and thrifty cook tells 1t,
the story is good enough for place in
great snake literature. The Campbell
was lying head on to the pier at hlngs-
ton, discharging hard pine, when, one
| hot afternoon. what should come climb
ing in over the starboard cathead but
4 snake that looked to be about 90 feet
long. The men howled in fright and
fled to the rigging, while the snake said
nothing, but kept on coming. There
seemed to be a good deal of him, for he
kept sort of pouring in over the topgal-
liant forecastle and flowing down into
the chain box, near the windlass. like
stream of cold molasses. When finally
the whole of him had arrived on board,
| the snake took squint around, and
seemed actually to grin as he beheld all
hands, barring the cook, hustling up
the forerigging.
Can snakes climb?" yelled one of the
sailors to the mate, and the mate re-
Piled:
"Of course they can, you lubber!
Climb like monkeys!"
Upon receipt of this encouraging in
| formation all hands raced to the mast
head, wondering if the snake would
come up and chase them across the
springstay.
The cook wasn't up aloft, however.
He was on deck, and it's lucky he was.
This cook, having travelled around con-
siderably, had been shipmates with
snakes before. and he wasn't a bit rat
tied at the sight of this 1S-foot moe
casin, with his glittering eyes and dia-
mondmarlled back. He hustled for the
after house, and, diving down below,
came up presently with towel soaked
with chloroform. Edging up to the
snake who had by this time made pro-
cession of himself in the waist, the cook
deftly threw the towel over the reptiles
head, and then got out of the way
lively.
The touch of the towel or the odor of
the chloroform startled the snake Per-
haps he was an escaped circus snake,
and had smelled dope drugs before
Any way, he made one graceful and
lightning-likc spring, and sailed over
the foreboom. which had been hoisted
high out of the way of the stevedores.
Nothing in the circus could match that
jump. 1t was like the flash of dia-
mond-headed rainbow, quick and
brilliant performance, with positively
no encores. When the snake landed on
the other side of the boom he darted aft
like a flash, but he must have been
blinded with rage, for he didn't see
where he was going, and gave his pretty
head a bump against the hatch coam-
ing. This seemed to daze him, for,
strange as it may appear, the reptile
went forward again and laid his head
down plump on the chloroformed towel.
In a few seconds it was all over with
the big moccasin. He gave one or two
wavy sort of quivers and then stretched
out as limp as an old hawser. The crew
came down from aloft and polled the
reptile with capstan bars and things.
and, seeing that there were no more
snakes around, ventured the opinion
that this one was not SO hot-that may
be he couldn't bite, any way.
The cook laughed scornfully, said
something about hustling aloft from a
toothless snake, and then suggested:
You just look at his stinger!"
But there was no curiosity on that
| point just then. The cook took the
snake, without opposition, and poured
him into big stone jar, tail first. fill
ing the jar up then with Jamaica rum
Later the cook went ashore and cap
tured 13 other mocassins, varying in
length from II inches to seven feet, all
of which he preserved in Jamaica rum.
When the Campbell arrived in Bangor
the cook set up snake store. He sold
the big one to a Boston man for $26, and
the others to collectors for various
prices down to one dollar-Chicago In
! ter Ocean.