Crowd Flees From Snake Loose in Street

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 426, 7 August 1928, Page 13

Crowd Flees From Snake Loose in Street

Reptile Celebrates Independence Day

HOLIDAY AMBLE

A black serpent live feet long declared an independence all its own in a stationery store in New York on July 4. Asserting its inalienable right I to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- | piness, it burst the shackles of the size--1 able brown leather bag which had been confining it for at least twenty-four hours, and emerged. Nathan Jersowitz, dealer in stationery, is an accommodating man. He accommodated a mysterious stranger the day before, who entered the store and asked if he could leave some articles there until the next day. Jersowitz told him to put them in a corner. When he looked at them he found they were a tripod and top such as street vendors use, a square of black velvet and the sizeable brown leather bag. All was well on Independence afternoon. The stationery business was going nicely. Jersowitz basked by the counter. Suddenly more stars than ever hung in a blue field danced before his eyes. His eyes were gazing, when they cleared, on a snake of no mean size and an exceptionally horrid aspect. Immobile, Jersowitz watched the creature ooze across the floor. But it was the sunlight of the street that was luring the snake, not Jersowitz. The snake slipped out. Park Avenue was crowded with holiday makers. Peace and prosperity were abundantly present in the neighbourhood of 112th Street. Only a railroad train passing occasionally, bound for Grand Central, shocked the serenity of the hour. But in about a second all this changed. Park Avenue was in an uproar, and in another second it was deserted. Nothing remained but a black serpent, and it proceeded southward in the peculiarly self-possessed manner of serpents. In his doorway Nathan Jersowitz breahed a sigh of relief. Society had given expert testimony that his eyesight was unimpaired. The serpent ambled down the warm sidewalk. He had asserted himself—and he was free.

Patrolman Chester Stubing was minding his post in the neighbourhood. The Fourth of July wasn’t what it used to be, that, was clear. No casualties at all, to speak of. No fingers to patch up, no patriotic drunks to solace, no fires, no nothing. It might as well have been Groundhog Bay for all the diversion there was in it. “r ike! Snake!” a terrified voice shouted in Patrolman S tubing’s ear. There was a pounding of footsteps. A swirl of terrified humanity bore down upon him. This was better. "When the facts were made clear to Patrolman Stubing he acted with dispatch and acumen. He sent for two long sticks and a basket. With these he approached the serpent. Though independent, it was a docile snake. A little coaxing and manipulation of the two sticks brought it to the basket. Half an hour later it was in the station house, and later still in the Bronx Zoo, in a large and spacious cage. And it seemed content with Its new environment.