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k MISSISSIPPI MONSTER!It Harries two Mill-hands Across theHirer.It has not been generally known up town, bat it has got out to some alarming extent among the moonlight skiff parties of ladies and gentlemen who are in the habit of enjoying their evenings on the river, that a terrible river serpent, of sufficient coil to play havoc with a whole pleasure fleet, has recently been seen in our waters. In the various stories told of this strange visitor he has been made to assume eyery form imaginable, from the regular sea serpent to the hideous devil Huh and other monstrous creatures of the deep, until those exaggerations haye tended to make one believe that the horrid thing was a creature of pure ticlion.To get at the bottom facts of the report, a Journal representative visited South Muscatine to-day and interviewed the two mill-hands who saw his suake-ship. They are employes of the Herahey upper mill, named Henry Judisch and Will ie Bloom, aged ‘21 and 15 years, and are indorsed by (ion. Banks and the foreman of their depart nftmts as truthful, sober-minded, ami every wayworthy of oonlidenco. They were seen separately but confirmed each other’s account to the letter. The day of the adventure was a week ago last Saturday. The young men rowed a skiff over to the Illinois shore toward evening to engage in fishing. They reached a point opposite the tow-head aud hauling their boat ashore,were sitting down arrangiug their lines and bait, when young Bloom caught sight of the ser-but a little wavs fromThepent, nut a nine ways shore, coming down stream! head of the snake was poised over a foot above water, and its body was visible in curves for ten or twelvefeet behind. The head was about the size of a mau’s double list, and Judisch describes it as looking like a blue-ra-ncer’s. Its head turned from side to side, sometimes with open mouth, and the boys say that it made a head ripple and swell in the water as it moved lt;| along, like the passing of a skiff Judisch makes the distance from shorefrom 20 to 30 feet, and it looked so near to Bloom that he jumped behind the boat aud bent down there, trembling, while the snake was passing. Two or three imee the creature turned its head toward shore, but swung back andstream to quite a little distance belowour spectators, when it made for the shore in earnest. Then it was that our boys did not wait upon the order oftheir going. They shoved that skiff oftshore quicker than a boat was everlaunched before, and seizing the oarsmade swift work ,for homo. Judisch he has had enough fishing overthere for a spell, and a free pass toSaturday’s circus wouldn’t begin tohire young Bloom to take a skiff across the river. Each says it was plain day light amt that tho serpent was as visible in its neck and head and rollingbody, as if it had lain at their feet.
Newspaper Details
Muscatine Daily Journal
Muscatine, Iowa, US
Wed, Jun 09, 1886
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Terry F.
USA 12 Jun 2018
Other Publications Near Muscatine, Iowa
Muscatine Journal and News Tribune
New Indexed Atlas of Muscatine County Iowa
Atlas of Muscatine County Iowa
Muscatine Daily Journal
Muscatine Weekly Journal
