Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-21
STOPPED BY A SNAKE
RAILROAD BUILDING IN BRAZIL
ENDS WHEN REPTILE APPEARS.

From the New Orleans Picayune.
Railroad building in Brazil some years
ago was primarily fight against rank veg
citation and labor troubles" said Thomas
E. Cassidy, who was formerly engineer
there, and he told strenuous story of how
an anaconda killed two men and frightened
1,500 others to such an extent that the
building of the road ceased forever.
Il was born in England and was there ed
ucated as an engineer" he said. ay
back in 'S7. nearly twenty years ago.
went to Argentina, and after remaining
there a short time went on to Brazil, where
the incident of which have been remins-
cling occurred. My memory Is fading now,
for none Of us can remember distinctly the
happening of time so locS ago, but as 1
look back across the years 1 can still see
the horrible sight of those two men being
ground to jelly by the great anaconda of
the forest. l can still see the rioting of
loo hungry men and the burning of the
Brazilian underground. it made impos-
Sibie the extension of a railroad.
Difficult to Land.
II remember a funny experience when l
landed at Buenos Ayres. From the steam
boat we were transferred, with our bag
gage, to a tugboat in the middle of the
river, because of its shallowness; from
there to small rowboats; from there to
carts pulled by horses in the water. and for
the rest of the way were compelled to
get wet feet by walking ashore. But one
gets used to that sort of thing down there
OR used to, anyway.
Il went to work at my profession as a
civil engineer, not finding it very difficult,
for at that time men of special training
were In great demand in mat country and
l was not long waiting. 1 dickered around
for higher wages for a while and then
= Co. A..
constructing the Bahia and Minas railroad.
The name was as far as 1t ever got as far
ds the completion OF 1t was concerned. for
Its untfmely end was not long in coming.
THE road was being built directly
through a dense forest such as is common
in the land of the equator. Those who
have seen the everglades or the delta of
the Mississippi or the great woods In parts
of Canada can never imagine the growth
one witnesses there.
Growth Almost Impossible.
Great giant trees seem to pierce the
sky. so high do they go. and spread over
all branches and leaves which make all dark
and mysterious beneath. These rank luxu-
RANT grz sses, bushes. flowers, water
growth and vegetation of every kind make
mass almost impenetrable When the |
great rains of the tropics swept over IL one |
could almost see the growth going on.
We'll. 1t was through this mass that we |
through this mass that we made slow work |
We moved the camp. the rude camp of the
road builder. from place to place as we |
moved along. Birds and animals of al |
most every description were in abundance |
and wild fruits of every kind were in plenty |
yet most difficult to conquer for the uses of |
man. But We had provisions supplied from |
the rear at headquarters and with ample |
material of construction we proceeded.
But suddenly. like one of the great |
storms, there came a time of trouble and |
despair. from which I narrowly escaped |
with my life. think we had been leading |
the kind of life have described for some |
two weeks when we reached place called |
Itapulco. We had started to work In the /
morning as usual, and all of the go men /
were engaged In the battle against the will
derness.
Meet the Anaconda.
.'It had rained during the night and the |
sun had not been up long enough to. dry up /
the moisture. which made the humidity al /
most unbearable- The place where we were +
working was swamp land. the black. rot
ting swamp vegetation over black al i
luvial soil. 1t was here that we met the