Death of a Child by Snake, 1893

[Jerseyman]

The North American (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Friday, 16 June 1893, page 6.

A SNAKE’S DEADLY COIL
The Life of a Child Crushed Out by a Large Reptile.
THE LITTLE ONE’S SLEEP OF DEATH
To Secure the Body of the Babe It Was Necessary to Sever the Body of the Monster.

Special Dispatch to The North American.
EGG HARBOR, N.J., June 15.—A large pine snake, four feet four inches in length, yesterday encircled the neck of a sleeping girl baby of William Parvin, a well-known farmer near here, and choked the little one’s life out before it was discovered. The mother of the child had placed a pillow on the grass for her to sleep on during the hot afternoon. She did not hear any outcry and first knew of the snake’s presence probably a quarter of an hour after it had finished its deadly work.
When discovered the snake was still coiled around the neck of the child with its head on the face. The frantic mother screamed for her husband, who was working in a field near-by, and then grasped the body of the reptile with both hands. It bit her several times, but she continued her hold. The snake coiled itself closer to the child the harder the mother pulled, and she was afraid to use greater force for fear of injuring the baby. The father arrived in a few minutes and with a jack-knife cut the snake in two. The baby was found to be dead.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Teegate]

Sad!

Guy

 

[woodjin]

Wow, that is terrible. Very odd for a pine snake to behave that way. Either a very freak accident, or perhaps there is more to the story and the snake was a scapegoat of sorts.

 

[Bobbleton]

not buying it . . .

 

[Teegate]

not buying it . . .

Murder, accidental death?

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

I once had a pine snake i was carrying across my shoulders wrap around my neck when I was fourteen.They love the warmth.well the snake started tightening up and by the time I grabbed the snake to pull it off it was too strong.I Ran to my mom to get her to get it off and she thought I was joking.My dad saw that my face was starting to turn purple and yelled at my mom,he promptly grabbed the snake by the tail and unwrapped it.the snake was much to muscular to rip straight off.Thanks to dads quick thinking I lived to herp another day.I would place some credibility to this story.The snake would not be trying to kill and eat the baby,snakes generally know what is too big to eat but all the snake knew was it was warm and didn't move and coild around and started to tighten to get even warmer.The baby by the time it realized something was happening if indeed it ever woke up wiuld probably not have been able to make a sound anyway.How long must one leave a baby unattended on the ground for this to happen?Probably at least five minutes maybe ten.He didn't have to kill the snake to get it off but then again if the snake killed my kid it's life wouldn't be worth much either.A sad freak accident.Doesn't make snakes any mor evil then the family cat.
Al

 

[woodjin]

I had thought of that also, Al. That the snake was just trying to get warm. (BTW that is quite a story, glad you made it through). However, I noticed the date was june 15th and generally it is pretty warm that time of year, would the snake be seeking out a warm body with all that warm sun, if in fact it was sunny. I don't know, very odd.

Jeff

 

[joc]

Pine Snake

xx

 

[joc]

Pine Snake

Al , glad you made out OK.The fact it was mid-June is a bit strange .Then again there was that case last summer where the Burmese did the same thing in FL.It still sounds strange that the snake would come close to a dwelling , in warm weather ,and arbitrarily constrict the baby's neck ?.it was a lot less built up over 100 yrs ago , but something is still "off".
Joe O'C /njpinesnake

 

[manumuskin]

If the snake was already as warm as the baby then no it would have no reason to seek the babies warmth.If the snake had a body temp in the low 80's it would not be seeking warmth and if above it would be seeking heat relief (shade) so knowing the temp that day would help.
Snakes do not know if their near hman dwellings or not.Some snakes chosen habitat keeps them mostly away from human dwellins such as rattlers habits of frequenting rough rocky cliffs and ground,places humans wouldn't choose to build but pine snakes frequent pinelands type habitats and anyone who builds their house iun their habitat is likely one day to find a pine snake crawling across the yard and the snake will probably not be aware it's in your yard.If you turn your yard into a fresh mown green oasis of grass and somewhat devoid of animal life except for robins then the snake will not find that appealing and may avoid crossing it.Pine snakes eat mice,wood rats,chipmunks,baby squirrels and birds.If they can find these things there they will go there.
The snake that choked me was slightly over six feet long and about as thick as a mans wrist,you cannot wrip these snakes in half with muscle power as i was trying to do.dads lack of panic as I was doing saved me.the snake wished me no ill will and i remember it being cold to the touch so it no doubt felt that my hot neck felt quite good.I once had a black rat snake get loose(as a kid i felt no compunction about bringing snakes home with me much to moms consternation)andcoil itself around our old style hot water heat radiator(you know the type,mounted next to the wall) and it took dad 10 minutes to get thing unwrapped around the thing.Also a snake will burn themselves badly on things that are two hot.I found this out with a ball python and a defective hot rock.Took months and many sheds to doctor the snake back to being healed.snakes and reptiles apparently don't sense pain the way we do.Could you imagine laying on a blistering rock while it peels your skin off and making no effort to move because your brain is telling you it's warm and to lay there????Snakes are lean mean survival machines but not necessarily the brightest crayons in the box.
My big wonder is what were the parents thinking leaving a baby unattended lying on the ground?Coyotes I'm sure would eat one if hungry and given the chance(perhaps this was before we had coyotes) (upon rereading the article i see it was 1893,i bet we may not have had coyotes back then but we may have had bears and mountain lios still but definitely foxes and bobcats both of which could no nasty things to a baby)but still,ticks and spider bites can mess a baby up,a dog could walk up and give it a good bite just for meanness as some dogs will.Leaving a baby alone on the ground is definitely a no no,A baby and a
nice snake both gone bacuse of parental incompetence.
Al