SNAKES CAUSE PANIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 108, 8 May 1936, Page 7

SNAKES CAUSE PANIC

ESCAPE IN AN HOTEL BITTEN OWNER SUCCUMBS THREE REPTILES STILL AT LARGE OTHERS KILLED BY GAS [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright] Received Mav 7, 8.26 p.m. MONTREAL, May 6. Three snake? of a deadly species are believed to be loose in Montreal somewhere to-day, having escaped while their owner lay dying from a bite from one of them. Edward Smith, of Louisiana, who vame to Montreal to exhib’t reptiles which he raised on his southern farm, had kept twelve poisonous snakes in a cage in a room at an hotel, including an adder which he autempted to treat for some ailment. The adder bit him and by the time he rushed to hospital the poison had so far spread through his system that aniputation of the arm where it was bitten was of no avail. Fleeing from the hotel room, Smith left the door open and three snakes are believed to have escaped. A municipal chemist, by application of poison gas, killed nine snakes in the hotel room. Panic was caused in the section of the city where the hotel is located, as the police roped off streets and permitted no pedestrians to approach and made a sysitemati‘c search for the reptiles believed to have escaped.