Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1893 — HERE’S A WHOPPER. [ARTICLE]

HERE’S A WHOPPER.

The Snake Or the Lie As Yen Like It, Several days ago a great sea-serpent story was sent out from Knox in effect that a monstrous reptile was haunting the waters of Cedar Bass lake, making navigation perilous. The pleasure steamer City of Kokomo was reported as having run afoul of the monster, and the engineer and fireman were compelled to jump over* board and swim for their lives. Pleasure seekers were so alarmed that they refused to trust themselves on the bosom efthe lake, and something had to be done to restore the reputation of Cedar Bass as one of the heaven-kissed resorts of the world. It was reported that the monster hibernated near the center of the lake, in sixty feet of water, and last Sunday G. A. Scott and B. J. Andrews, of Chicago, headed an expedition, in which a number of well-known gentlemen took part. They bestowed themselves in row-boats, armed with axes, harpoons, Winchester rifles. spears, and other weapons of offense and defense, and after surrounding the spot where the monster was concealed, the '’eptile was attired up by dragging an anchor attached to seventy feet of rope backward and forward. Soon the creature came to the top with a mighty snort, and twenty bullets were fired into it at short range. The reptile made no effort to again sink,but alowly iriade ite way to a sand-bar, where it calmly disposed itself In a comfortable manner and laid down to lie. A rope was then attached to its head and it was towed to the pier, where the carcass was sold to a Chicago saloonkeeper as an antidote for jim-jams. According to the measurements given out the reptile was 36 feet four inches in length, 3 feet thick, and weighs 1,250 ponnds. The announcement is now officially made, backed by the seal of the county in which Cedar Bass lake is located, that all danger has been removed.