Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1846-03-21
A Snake-bit freshman.

Spirit oil the Times gives an W iSihai
Tennessee Hunting incident that
will pass" A jolly party OF sports
men, made up Of veteran hunters rife
for sport and full of fun, were enjoy
ing themselves for few weeks in the
mountains Of Morgan county, Tennes-
see. A huge, raw-boned, loquacious
Irishman, unlimited, quartered HIM
self in their camp, and in addition to
being a nuisance when awake, snored
so terrifically when asleep as to drive
{" tired natures sweet restorer" from
others. Pat was afraid of snakes gen
orally, and " ould snakes in particular,
and the awful yarns he heard IN the
hunters camp, walked snakes" IN
every hair on the Irishman's head
After listening to .feao warns on the
much dreaded snake subject one eve
ming, this fresh son of the sod prepared
to turn in, literally crawling all over.
Counting his beads and his chances on
being "snake bit,' before day, and
"tucking inv his blanket and wishing
the "sowls Of all snakes in these parts
in purthickuler," in country, where,
to say the least, they would stand but
slim chance for INDUCING in their
natural torpidity, he fell asleep. The
correspondent proceeds:
And now the storm began. Ills
snoring grew fast and furious, loud and
long occasionally sort of bali snort,
half grunt, terminating with " snakes
by iabess, blast their sowls y Ugh!
ugh % when there came the variation
or chorus in the shape OF grind OF his
teeth that threatened to drive them
through his jaw or crush them to pow
der by way of variety he would hold
bis breath few seconds and then snore
again, and such snoring my stars,
that could spell it. 1t was a sort Of
cross between the breathing Of an asth-
matte elephant and the braying Of n
superannuated donkey, whose will last
cd longer than his wind. We'll, il thus
continued with the regularity OF the
whip-poor-wil's coy, until say bali an
hour before ay-break, when J. M. w.
Jim w. wen say,) whose stock OF
patience had long ago evaporated, IN
rolled himself from his blanket, saying
in his usual quiet way, Humph ! III
stop that internal concert or start the
maker Of it, see il | don't Umph ~
he then awokc Jim A. and the Judge.
when plot was laid and thus carried
into execution.
w. got his hunting knife and going
to where the ofial of large deer had
been thrown he cut of about seven
feet OF gut, and securing the ends with
Irvine 10 contain the contents, he tied
one end of il tight and fast to corner
of Paddy's shirt-tail that had wandered
through rint" in the seat Of his
breeches, coiling il all up smooth by
his side, snake-lke and true, All
things thus arranged, the conspirators
laid down again, and at the conclusion
of one of The stage-horn snoros, with
the snake sowls" variation, Jim A.
reared out at the top Of his voice." Hu
WEE Hu wEn A big copper-head-
cd black rattle-snake, eleven feet long,
has crawled up my breaches, and is
tying himself into double bow-not
round my body !" giving the Irish
man, with every word, a furious dig in
the side with his elbow, with n running
accompaniment on his shins with his
heels |! or course, this hurting awoko
him quick and wide in bis drst move
ment he laid his hand on the nice cold
coil Of gut at his side. Kissing out a
aJayzus" from between his clenched
teeth, he made bound that carried him
some ten feet clear of the camp, and
with force that Strengthened out the
coil and made the snakes tail crack
like a cart whip
Casting one wild blazing look be-
hind he tore off with the rapidity OF
lightning around the camp in some
forty feet across, and at every bound
shouting, or rattle. yelling,T SAFE i'm
SAFE i'm by the tail Och, howly
vargin, stop i'm /. Och, Saint Path
rick tare i'm in till jabletts Awha!
A wha Bate i'm 30 smithcreens wild
a gun, can't yeesl He's got me fast
how'd by me - Och, he has,
by Jabers (! al he's uieadin his Aoulf!
a wha Howly Father, he's got a
shark hook on us tail Och, murther,
he's forty feet long J" On making his
last circuit he ram through part of the
smouldering campfire, aud the Irvine
at the aft end of the gut caught fire
this brought new terror, and added a
strong inducement for him to put on
more steam and increase his rate /