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Chicago Daily Tribune
Monday, 17 June 1907


         BIG SNAKE PROVES SHY
         
         HASTINGS, MICH., HUNTERS MISS IT,
           BUT DON'T GO DRY
           
         Although They Didn't Kill the Reptile
          Some of the Would-Be Slayers May Have
          Seen 'Em, Because the Commissarriat Wagon
          That Went Out Full Came Back Empty - And
          the Sexton's Wife Is Still Unrevenged.
          
         Hastings, Mich., June 16. - Special - 
       Four hundred men, women and children gathered today
       to witness the beginning of the hunt for the snake,
       believed to have escaped from a circus many years
       ago, which was seen last week by the wife and daugh-
       ter of the sexton. They reported that it was much
       longer than when seen a month ago by a farmer. He
       said it was 30 feet long.
         Just why the whole countryside should have turned
       out to kill the snake today is inexplicable. It has
       been an inhabitant of Hastings, according to different
       historians, for from twenty-five to forty years. In
       all of that time it has never been known to steal a
       pig or even a chicken. The worst it ever did was to
       make eyes at the sexton's wife.
       
         Gallant Band Takes Up Chase.
         Commander SYLVESTER GREUSEL, accoutered in the
       white helmet, red sword, and belt of a Knights of
       Pythias, and waving his flashing sword, set the hunt
       in motion today.
         "Let him who finds the varmint fire three shots in
       the air as a signal. Everybody lie down flat when the
       shots are fired. Then hasten towards the monster's
       lair," instructed the commander general.
         BILL MICHAEL, the second in command, was equipped
       to meet any snake that crawls. He carried a baseball
       mask, a pair of tongs to extract its fangs, a bait
       box, a tin dagger, and a landing net.
         GEORGE EDWARDS, manager of the opera house, carried
       a stone tomahawk and an 1863 musket, and a bird cage.
       Ald. ESAU CANNON, the tallest man in town, was there
       to shake the reptile down in case he was treed. Then
       there was BING LEWIS, pioneer snake killer of Barry
       county, and NOISY SMITH from Quimby, who was expected
       to scare the brute to death. Lieut. Com. JOHN WEISSERT
       and City Clerk JIM PATTEN each carried a bottle of
       chloroform.
         
         Catch No Snake but See 'Em.
         There were thirty-four shotgun men and HANK BARNABY.
       HANK was the most important man on the hunt, as it 
       turned out he had charge of the commissary wagon, and
       it was not ham sandwiches that clinked in the wagon
       as they started out.
         "For forty-six years that snake has been here and is
       thirty-six feet long and as big as a barrel." said BILL
       MICHAEL.
         He escaped from a traveling circus forty years ago
       when the wagon tipped over, near the cemetery.
         Two carloads of beer are shipped into Hastings each
       week. Each carload contains ninety barrels. Two hundred
       barrels of whiskey are sold here in a year. Each barrel
       contains fifty gallons, making a total of 4,000 quarts,
       and, with twenty drinks per quart, 80,000 drinks of
       whiskey. The town has a population of 4,500. The snake
       wasn't caught today, but a least a dozen say they saw
       it.
       
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