by Laurel | October 6th, 2014
01 August 1898
The latest snake story is that from Walnut Street, where a snake nearly six feet long is said to have come through the faucet and squirmed happily about in the bathtub. The statement that the snake asked for cold beans and a plate of hash is denied. Frogs are said to come out of faucets and croak, polliwogs come out and wog, and various creeping thing appear from time to time. These facts and other facts of a cold and slimy nature gave rise to the following startling editorial sentence in a local paper Saturday:
“Not only does the water reek with algae and the countless millions of microbes that breed disease and death, but the grosser forms of marine animals, such as snakes and frogs, are enabled to enter the city’s water pipes, threatening the very lives of the people”
The number of deaths from frogs and snakes the past year in Holyoke are not given, because the deluded physicians have had the temerity to ascribe the deaths to other causes; were the real truth to be made known, the statistics would doubtless include something like the following items: Deaths by frogs, 17; death by snakes, 21. The board of health should take measures to see that more correct returns are made, and that this menace against the lives of the citizens of Holyoke be removed. Meanwhile, as a matter of precaution and deliverance from death, each householder should strain the reservoir water through red flannel until the summer is past.
From The Springfield Republican.
