DR. BOHL'S SNAKES GOT
OUT OF THE BOTTLE
Keith & Perry Building Tenants Are
Seeing Things in Every
Corner Now
. Look out for snakes. Dr. Otto Bohl took a bottle of young ones up to the office of Harry R. Walmsley, vice president of the Zoological Society, and the things all got away. Bohl, being humane and not afraid of anything, considerately left the cork of the bottle loose, although he had cut a nick in it for ventilation. When the late Democratic nominee for coroner got to former Representative Walmsley's office there was nobody there but the young woman stenographer. When he had said that he was leaving a bottle of snakes for Mr. Walmsley there was nobody in the office at all. The young woman telephoned from a nearby drug store from time to time, finally getting word to Mr. Walmsley.
"There is a bottle full of snakes on your desk, Mr. Walmsley," she said. "I am afraid to come --"
"-- home in the dark," Mr. Walmsley supplied as he left the telephone to go to his desk. He returned to tell the girl that she might return to her place. "There are no snakes here. I guess it was a mistake."
"Are there really no snakes in the bottle?" the girl inquired.
"The bottle is there and a cork beside it, but it is empty."
A scream closed the conversation. Though a block away, the girl was frightened. Them Mr. Walmsley, naturalist, laughed with glee. A flock of snakes was running through the Keith and Perry building.
"They are little bits of fellows," said Mr. Walmsley yesterday. "Dr. Bohl caught a big garter snake and put it in a box. The next morning he found eight in the box, including the big one. He bottled up the eight young ones for the city zoo and brought them over to me. They got out of the bottle and dear knows where they are, for I do not. The janitors have looked everywhere but in the dark corners, and they say they do not like to look there. Garter snakes are very harmless and quite affectionate. I hope if they are found none of the office people will kill them."
It is easy to distinguish the Keith & Perry building stenographers. They are wearing automobile faces just now and most of them have pulled their desks out into the middle of the offices. Declaring that he was doing it "just for fun," one young man in the building with rah rahs on had rubber bands around the cuffs.
"I think it is horrid," said one young woman yesterday as she started back to the building from lunch. "Every time a rubber band drops on the floor or a piece of string is seen, we all jump. I scream. I just cannot help it. I am glad Dr. Bohl was defeated for the nomination. They ought to make him keep his nasty snakes at home. Our office is only two floors above that of Walmsley & Scott, and the elevator boy told me he saw two of the what you call 'em snakes going up the elevator shaft this morning. Two of the girls have left the building, afraid to stay in it till they capture the things again."
