Eureka Reporter | 1905-01-20 | Page 3 | Snakes in This Concrete

SNAKES IN THIS CONCRETE odd foundations of new lehigh valley shops at sayre pa the lehigh valley railroad Is using a combination of crushed stone and snakes in its concrete york in the large new shop being erected here says a dispatch from sayre pa but the snake part of the mixture Is not in according to the plans and alons of the road s engineers the crushed stone Is procured from a gravel bed near the aubourn branch and the cold weather has caused the snakes along the branch to seek the warm interior of the earth tor their winter s nap thousands of them sought refuge in the gravel pit for their descent was easy on account of the number of crevices the picka of the workmen ruthlessly uncover these hibernating places and the la borers say that fully 1 snakes ar troubled in their winter s deep on each working day one den thus invaded was found to contain over snakes twisted to gether in a large ball twined and in ter twined laced and interlaced a ver liable delirium phantom of a medusa head and each particular snake in the lethargic stupor of natures winter repose frequently suspended from the frozen covering of the pit the work men see a snake with one enl frozen fast and the other end dongling in illint protest to the demolishing hand of man but the workmen are without feel ing everything Is food for the stone crusher and the hibernating mass la thrust heartlessly into the hopper cha ged to cracked stone and mangled snakes and then becomes a part of the lehigh s new shops