STRANGE TRAVELLERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 13

STRANGE TRAVELLERS.

BAG OF SNAKES. EXCITEMENT ON RAILWAY STATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 23. When a bag of snakes got loose on the Narjromine railway station the platform was deserted magically; travellers and their friends dissolved. After all the excitement had died down and all the snakes but one had been recaptured, for they were performing snakes, this remaining escapee played hide-and-seek with the local police constable. IV hen the train arrived at Narromine from Peak Hill a number of snakes were ”'*ticed crawling about the top of one of the loaded trucks. Having noticed tha,t the train had reached its destination some of the snakes sagaciously left the truck and began to :aunter up and down t platform. Indeed, they were given the freedom of the platform until the stationmaster, Mr Dailey, and Constable Hannaford came on the scene determined either to apprehend the snakes or see that platform tickets were provided. Up and down the station, on top of the truck and back again, then to the permanent way and the signal .vires, the chase progressed. A thoroughly delighted audience watched from a distance, and a thrill was provided by the belligerent attitude of a six-foot snake. Eve. tually the reptiles were all captured uninjured, and at this juncture a sidesh iwman travelling on the train took charge of them. They were another showman's snakes, he said, cultured and respectable when properly cared for, but their master had lingered too long amidst the beauties of Peak Hill, and had missed the train by which the other members of his theatrical troupe were travelling. The incident recalls an incident that occurred in a Murchison (W.A.) town last year when a drover who had grown eccentric by long periods of solitude, aud who had collected a kerosene tin full of snakes, mostly venomous, brought them with him to sample the sights of the little town. It appears that he had got the snakes almost domesticated, and when he laid the tin on its side and commenced to whistle the makes, or most of them, would crawl back into their unusual kennel. Arriving in the town with the kerosene tin in a sugar bag the man, of course, visited the -first hotel, and slowly commenced a. tour of the remaining two hostelrics. A few hours and he had forgotten about his possessions, and somebody, thinking that there might be something worth while in the sack, stole it. This man took h’s loot home and opened the sack. The writhing mass of reptiles within the tin filled him with terror, and he dropped the tin aud ran outside. He collected his senses outside and returned intending to take the snakes elsewhere, but Ee found that they had escaped. from the overturned tin, and were crawling everywhere.

His predicament was difficult. If he called for assistance he branded himself a. a thief, if he did not obtain assistance quickly his home, a nest of snakes, would be a most dangerous habitat. Taking a blanket and leaving the front door open he went and slept in the scrub, returning in the morning to find what he had expected had happened; the snakes had preferred the open. Their owner walkea up and down whistling and rattling a kerosene tin for days afterwards without success, but for months afterwards the residents kept a heavy stick handy to despatch the escapees as they appeared in the open from time to time. Even now, 12 months afterwards, when probably all the reptiles have been killed, there are those who would not dream of living in that street, believing that some of the snakes, which, they say, were half educated by r heir owner, have established thriving families Jut, thi locality.