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Some Pretty Big Warns About Gigantic Monsters That Once Existed. The dragon is frequently mentioned by ancient naturalists as well as by scriptural writers and dreamers. Aris totle tells us that dragons 70 cubits in length were often met within the vicin ity of the Ganges. Reducing the cubit to feet, according to our mode of reck oning length, we find that these im mense serpents were 35 yards in length. Alexander the Great and his army en countered one in a cave that measured 105 feet in length. An ancient work on serpents says: Three kinds of dragons were former ly recognized in India. First, those of the hills and mountains; second, those of the valleys and caves; third, those of the marshes and fens. The first is the largest and is covered with scales as resplendent as burnished gold. They have a kind of beard hanging from their lower jaw, their aspect is fright ful and their cry terrible, being a loud, hissing wail. They have crests of bright yellow, and protuberances on their heads which are the color of a burning coal. Those of the flat coun try are of the color of silver; they fre quent the rivers, to which the former never come. Those of the marshes are black, slow of motion and have no crests. Strabo says the painting of ser pents with wings is contrary to truth, but other naturalists and travelers affirm that some species are winged. There is much confusion on this point. Some have mistaken the hood of the naja for wings; others have con founded the innocent dragon lizard with flying serpents and report, as Pliny does, that their bite is venomous, which is not true. At Batavia, Java, a serpent was once killed and the whole body of a negro woman and the carcass of a large stag found in its stomach. Leguat says: “There are many serpents on the island of Java that measure more than fifty feet in length. At Batavia they still keep the skin of one which, though but twenty feet in length, is said to have swallowed a young woman whole.” St. Jerome says that all immense ser pents are called boas, because they can swallow whole leoves (beeves), and lay utter waste to whole provinces. Bos man says that three entire negroes were found in the gullet of an immense ser pent killed on the gold coast of Africa. But Pliny caps the climax when he tells of the serpent which opposed the Ro man army, under Regulus, at the river of Bagrada, Africa. It devoured sev eral of the soldiers; its scales were so hard that they turned spears and darts. At length it was besieged by all the military engines that would be employ ed in attacking a fortified city. When killed the skin of the monster was sent to Rome as a trophy to be preserved in one of the temples. After drying sev eral days in the hot climate of Africa it was sent to the Imperial City and was even then found to be over 120 feet in length. —St. Louis Republic. Your Own Price on the Cigars. Stranger to a Bowery vender of cig arettes, tobacco and cigars, whose whole stock in trade of cigars consisted of two partially filled boxes—Have you any ten cent cigars? Vender reaches toward box number one. “Er, have you any five centers?” Vender reaches toward box number two. “Oh, I say, have you any two for fives?” ,Vender reaches toward box number one, ‘Never mind; I guess I will go down here to a friend of mine and get some three for fives.” Vender detains him with one hand, reaches toward box number two with the other, and exclaims, ‘‘Here are some,” —New York Tribune. Talk Reduced to Figures. Everybody knows, in a general way, how much more talk than work is done in the world, but few people realize the fact until it is reduced to figures. A speaker of average rapidity will use about 100 words a minute, and in con versation the rate is about the same. Now suppose the average talker talks four hours a day, he will repeat 24,000 each day, equal to twelve columns of the ordinary newspaper, or to forty eight pages of a book of ordinary size. In a year he will have uttered words that will fill 17,520 pages, or thirty-five volumes of 500 pages each, and in thirty years 1,050 volumes will be filled with the nothings that are said from mo ment to moment.—Interview in St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Newspaper Details
Kokomo Saturday Tribune
Kokomo, Indiana, US
Fri, Feb 06, 1891
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Kelley L.
USA 15 Jul 2026
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