The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-19
REAL SNAKE STORY .OF BOA CONSTRUCTOR Was 5 Feet Long and 5
 Feet Around HOW HE WAS KILLED Natives Had Warned Hunters That There Was Type of Snake
 Which Could Hypnotize
 Crowd of Men
HOW HE WAS KILLED

If the spring yield of snake stories keeps pace with the first one of the sea- son of 1912 it will be bumper crop. To be sure, this first snake story of the spring comes from the far away Amazon, which has special advantages as a snake story country, in that most of us haven't been there and are not prepared off-hand to express an opinion. Anyway, it's quite a story for any old place.
 The man who tells the snake story is Algot Lange. He is a young Dane and he Is now in New York after the most thrilling experiences in the jungle of the Amazon, which, as everybody knows, abounds in reptiles, fever and cannibals. He has told all about it in a book soon to be published, with the title Tn the Amazon Jungle"
 Mir. Lange is a wonderful young man. He not only avoided being eaten by can nibals, but also got on good terms with them, and was invited to their feasts on the flesh of their enemies killed in bat tie. His stomach, however was only ordinary and would not allow him to accept the invitation of his hosts. But to the snake story
 During his travelling about in the jun gle MT. Lange often came upon snakes of considerable size. He had no diff culty, however. in killing them, as they were sluggish in their movements and appeared to be inoffensive. In time he came to have rather a poor opinion of the Amazon snake.
 The savages, however, told him not to jump at conclusions-or words to that effect. They said there was a kind of snake that would make him sing differ ent song. It was the sucuruius kind of boa constructor. It was big snake. And 1t had the power of hypnotizing people before it coiled about them and squeezed 11x1 I,f ,fr 111, strictor "the silent monster of the river" And 1t was evident that they dreaded this big snake more than any animal of the jungle.
 And then one bright moonlight night, Mir Lange and his party of natives came face to face with sucurujus. Says MT. Lange:
 "On a soft. muddy sandbar. half hid der by dead branches I beheld some what cone shaped mass about seven feet in height. From the bast of this came the neck and head of the snake flat on the ground, with beady eyes staring at us as we slowly advanced and stopped. The snake was coiled, forming an enor- nous pile of round. scaly monstrosity. large enough to crush us all to death at once. We had stopped at a distance of about 15 feet from him and looked at each other. felt as if I were spell bound. unable to move a step further or even to think or act on my own initia- tive"
 Think of snake so big that he just naturally coied up into cone shaped mass seven feet high. No wonder Mir Lapge stood spellbound and didn't know what to do or how to do it. He goes on The snake still made no move, but in the clear moonlight I could see it's body expand and contract in breathing, it's yellow eyes seeming to radiate phos- phorescent light. I felt no fear or any inclination to retreat yet I was now fac ing beast that few men had ever sue ceeded in seeing. Thus we stood looking at each other scarcely moving an eyelid. while the great silent monster looked at us"
 That. of course, couldn't last forever Something bound to happen. And this is what did happen, as Mir Lange tells it:
 T slid my right hand down to the hol- ter of my automatic pistol the nine mill Iimeter Luser. and slowly removed the safety lock. at tbe same time staring into the faces of the men. In this manner I was less under the spell of the mesmer- ism of the snake and could fo some ex- tent think and act. I wheeled around while I still held control of my faculties, and. perceiving a slight movement of the snakes coils. I fired point blank at the
 
 soft-nosed bullets. Instantly the other men woke up from their trance and in turn fired. emntving their Winchesters into the huge head which by this time was raised to great height above US, loudly bissins in agony"
 It is hardly necessary to say that even sucurnius is bound 10 receive a stream of big soft nose bullets in the head~to sav nothing of the fpsillade from the riaes-with more or less disastrous re- s'fts Tn this rase they were entirely disastrous-or else this particular snake story would never have heen told. In fact. the sucuruius was killed outriDht.
 It only remains to tell the length of the snake and how hie he was around. hnd want it strictly understood that we don't know MT. Alsot r.anfe "e~sonsiiv' and have no means of establishing his renufation for truth and veracitv. With this distinct understanding we are wiSing to repeat what Mir. Lance says was the sizA of tnat sucuruius He says:
 s"rhe skin measured when dried 5l feet Is i7ches in length and feet l inch in width.''