The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-08-29
Ullp Aerald and Mrps
IT. HAS THEM GUESSING.
A CURIOUS CREATURE, HALF MAN
HALF FROG.
II ia alleged TO Have Come Ont Of Colonial
Lake and Negroes and Superrtitious FER
sons ars Much Disturbed-Expert
Opiaious. Including Some by Mr..
Bseswax.
News and Courier.

a hideous monster, half man and
half frog, appeared on the bank of
Colonial Lake few minutes before
IL o'clock Thursday night and ut
tered strange and distressing cries.
The frog man, as it has been dubbed,
came out of the waters of Colonial
Lake and remained on land probs-
bly, half hour before plunging
again beneath the rippling wavelets.
A fairly good view Of the repulsive
creature was obtained by William
Harper, 8 coIored truck driver and
JH Thompson, carpenter who lives
on Smith street. There were others
who could have enjoyed the pleas
ure of close inspection of the frog
man had they not excused them
selves and gone away hurriedly when
the ,saurian, or whatever you may
choose to call it, crawled out of the
lake.
81 was sitting on q bench on the
east side of the lake." said Mr..
Thompson yesterday to a Reporter
, for The Courier, "when I heard
a mighty splsshing in the water and
noise that sounded like this:
Dough! 900 ugh! 90 ugh-how W!
I wasn't secured exactly, but I be
gan to perspire. I watched the
thing a while, altough I was pre-
pared at any moment to go some
where else. Finally, to my great
surprise and-er- regret, the monster
came ashore and laid down with
another long 90 ugh! 1t was too
horrible looking to describe. The head
resembled that of a huge frog, the
wide, protruding eyes burning with
a lurid light. 1t had arms and
shoulders like 8 man, but the body
tapered down like a serpent's. 1t
was covered with large, greenish
scales, and should say it was at
least eight feet long from head to
tail Its mouth was filed with
crooked fsngs, which it snapped to-
gether with a vicious click. l do
not like to remain out late at night
so I started for home soon after the
thing came ashore. I can't imagine
what it is, where it came from, or
whether it will ever show up again.
But Pm entirely satisfied with the
little knowledge have of it. 1
wish now I'd never seen it. I'm
afraid it's going to trespsss on my
Dreams"
"Boss, I csyn't give you no par
ticlers about dot frog man." said
Harper, the colored truck driver, to
Reporter for The News and Cou-
rier. Il didn't wait for no particlers.
I was des sittin' and coolin' myself
at Colonial Lake Thursday night,
when I heard q mighty tbrashing in
de water. What in de debbil is dat,
sell to myself. My heart began to
confabulate with mo- than its usual
swiftness, when suddenly de horri
blest lookln' criter lever seen lunged
out of de water and de mex thing |
knew l waz runnin.' Down Broad
street I went clippin', and I didn't
have sense enough, to stop until l
collided wild de old Postofice build
ing. l thought I wuz both killed
and injured, but when | got more
calmer | realized that, while l wuz
safe, 1t wuzn't necessary for me to
90 to Colonial Lake no more. Vas,
Sir, dat's all / kno' about dat owda-
cious criter. See dis bruise on my
head? got dat when I tried to run
over de old Postofice building"
Scientists are ever interested in
these infrequent visitations to va
rious seaports in divers parts of the
world of monsters from the deep
that defy classification and offer the
widest latitude for speculation and
imagination. Naturally, the frog
man of Colonial Lake will come in
for a share of local interest Of the
speculative SOFT. What is its mis-
sion! A Charleston man, whose
knowledge is of sufficient scope to
enable him to discuss the Colonial
Lake mystery from the view point
of a scientist, was seen by Reporter
for The News aud Courier. After
listening to a description of the