The Snake's Return

New Zealand Tablet, 20 September 1906, Page 22

The Snake's Return

A small spark may create a great fire. And, in Ireland at least, a small snake may create a great blaze of excitement in the neighborhood where he is discovered. A little reptile (escaped possibly from a travelling show) was jjiscovered. some weeks ago in the garden of a Dublin suburb. It was no longer than one of the giant earthworms that fatten under the rich of the fern-gullies of Gippsland. But it seems to have scared some people as much as if it were a Bengal tiger at large. Snakes generally do so when they get free in a snakeless land. The reptile terror was at last captured after an exciting chase, imprisoned in a glass jar, and brought to the Zoological Gardens. The newspapers made much of the event, and there arose much discussion about the legend of St. Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland. Tim Ilealy accounted for the snake's presence in his own characteristic way. 'I don't believe in the St. Patrick tradition, 1 said he , -• the fact is, no respectable reptile could live- in Ireland under the regime of Irish landlordism, and like some self-respecting people, they removed to a free atmosphere. With the disappearance of the landlord, they, like, every other patriot, desire to return to their own country.' c .