The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-25
LAST SNAKE IN IRELAND
LEGEND OF HOW 1T WAS EN-
TRAPPED BY THE GOOD
ST. PATRICK
TWO ALARMS THIS CENTURY
On Each of Which Occasion Real
Live Serpent Was Seen
Only to Re
Killed.

New York Herald.
The discovery that there are snakes IN
Ireland will affect many people as
strangely as any other portent that could
be imagined The fact that Ireland Is
snakeless and has been so ever since
that great and holy man st. Patrick
concluded his ministry there is one of the
accepted facts of Irish history IT has
been set down in one Of the shortest
most succinct and most famous chapters
I'm all modern literature. the chapter In
book on natural history. headed Snakes
in Ireland" and containing only these
memorable words:
There's not a mile in Irelands Isle where
the dirt vermin musters;
Whereer he put his dear foretoot ne
murdered them in clusters;
The toadS went hop the frogs went mop,
slap, dash into the water,
And the snakes committed suicide to save
themselves from slaughter.
According to a famous legend there
was one snake so old and so cunning that
he survived all the rest of his species
for many years, despite every effeort Of
the saint At last the latter conceived
a notable plan. He had a strong chest
made with nine bolts upon it. Then he
walked out carelessly to the lair of the
remembered, was in the days when ami
mails not only understood what was told
them but could talk back in raturn) that
he had built an elegant winter house
for his snakeship. And the snake be-
lieved his smooth words and followed
him to examine the house. But when he
saw the nine bolts he grew alarmed and
was for making off.
Nay" said St Patrick, tbs a nice
warm house I've made for We, and it's
good friend l am to ye'
Thank We kindly, st. Patrick, an
swered the snake but it's too small
for me-
TOO sman?" cried the saint with well
affected surprise. "Tn tell you what
me boy, I'll bet you a gallon of porter
that it you will only get in it you viii
find plenty of room"
Now, the snake was thirsty that day,
and the thought of doing the holy man
out Of a gallon of porter was joyoUr t.
him. So. swelling himself up big As
he could, in he got, all but little bit Of
his tail"
Whereupon what does the saint DO but
slam down the heavy lid of the chest In
went the serpent's tail like a flash.
Straightway the saint began fastening
the nine bolts.
ooh, murder! Won't you let ME out.
the bet fair, and I'll pay the gallon like
a man"
Nay, retOred ST. Patrick wait TN
til tomorrow and with that he heaved
the chest into the lake below And &c
this day the serpent lies there at the bot
tom of the lake His struggles make the
waves upon the surface And many .
man in the neighbOrhood will swear thai
he has heard his piteous voice wailing.
us it tomorrow yet? Is it tomorrow
yet?''
But tomorrow had never arrived up tC
the latest accounts Is it possible tina
the snake has al last found means of es
cape?"
Twice in this century. however. tn,
alarm has been raised that snakes hat
reappeared in the Isle of Saints.
In the year 1881 an Irish gentleman
named James Cleland determined upol
an experiment. He wished to ascertain
whether the climate and soil of Ireland
We're in themselves destructive to tn,
serpent species. He therefore purchased
half dozen of the common, harmless
English snakes in COvent Garden mar
ket, London. These he turned loose il
his garden at Bath-Gael, in the Count,
of Down. A week later one of them wa,
killed at Milecross, about three mile.
distant.
The person who killed 1t had no idef
u us nature, out Idncled 1t to be curl
Gus sort of eel. DR.. ]. L. Drummond ;
famous naturalist, was consulted. AS 500
as he saw the body he declared II was ;
snake. The idea that a ''rale live sar
pint had been killed within a short dis
tance OF the very burial place of 81
Patrick raised an extraordinary sensa
ton among the peasantry. The mos
absurd rumors were circulated, and cred
tied alike by the county clergy and laity
One priest declared that the appears~~.
of the snake fOrbOded the approach G
the millennium. Another saw in it
type OF the approach of cholera morbu.
A third warned his flock that the snak
foreshadowcd "the beginning of tn
end
More practical minded persons sui
scrlbed a sum of money to be paid OF
IN rewards for any other snakes tina
might be destroyed in the district Thre
other reptiles We're in fact killed 500
a1terWard within a few miles of the gan
den where they had been liberated Th
remaining two were never clearly az
counted for, but no doubt they also fe
victims TO their hunters
Again, in the year 1890 snakes were rt
ported to have been found in Irelant
Three years previous and America
Snowman named Wilson had arrive
there with a menagerie of living an
mails Among them were lot
snakes One night Mr.. Wilson gC
drunk at the village of Armagh, in Til
perary, and in a spirit of mischief Il
loose his entire show. For q week thel
was an uprOar in the neighborhood Wi
beasts of all sorts were continuous
caught or slain. But nothing was sec
of the den of snakes. Meanwhile Nj