THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL — MAY 12, 1897
KANSAS FARMERS FRIGHTENED ♢ From Philips County Comes a Story of the Doings of a Reptile Fifty Feet Long.
TOPEKA, KANS., May 11.—Postmaster Walker of Logan, Kans., is authority for the story that farmers of Crystal Creek, Phillips County, are greatly excited at the appearance of an enormous reptile, which they say is fifty feet long. It has a snake’s body, but two horns. Its color is green, with dirty white spots. It eats small animals, principally fowl. One farmer lost forty pigs in forty-eight hours. Another testifies that the monster killed a plow-horse, which was feeding near the creek, by a single blow of its enormous tail. It was shot at several times, but its hide was proof against bullets. When in anger it hits its head ten feet in the air end protrudes its tongue three feet or more and utters a cry like a puppy crying for its mother. It hides in a swamp. It is supposed the reptile came from the deeper water of Salmon River. Farmers have organized a party to hunt the monster down.
From— The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco [Calif.]), 12 May 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
