The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1846-02-28
A SNAkE-BIT FRESHMAN.
A correspondent of the New Yo

l. A correspondent OF the New York
PSpirt of the Times gives san original
Tennessee Hunting incident" that "will
pass A jolly party of sportsmen.
made up of veteran hunters rife for
sport and full of fun, were enjoying
themselves for a few weeks in the
mountains of Morgan county, Tennes-
see. A huge, raw-boned, loquacious
lrshman, uninvited, quartered himself
in their camp, and in addition to being
nuisance when awake. snored so ter
riffically when sleep as to drive stirred
natures sweet restorer" from others.
Pat was afraid ofsnakes generally, and
sold snakes" in particular, and the aw-
ful yarns he heard in the hunters camp
"waked snakes in every hair on the
lriShmah's head. After listening to
fen yarns on the much dreaded snake
subject one evening, this fresh son Of
the sod prepared to turn in. literally
crawling all over. Counting his beads
and the chances of being "snake bit" be-
fore day, and sucking in" his blanket
and wishing "the sowls of all snakes in
these parts in purthickler," in coun-
try where, to say the least, they would
stand but slim chance for induIging
in their natural torpidity, he fell asleep.
The correspondent proceeds:
And now the storm began. His
snoring grew fast and furious. loud and
long; occasionally sort of half snort,
half grunt, terminated with "snakes bv
iabers, blast thersowls!" Ugh ngh!'
when there came the variation or Choir
US in tn shape of grind Of his teeth
that threatened to drive them through
his jaws or crush them to powder; bv
way of variety he would hold his breath
"A few seconds and then snore again.
and such snoring! my stars. that | could
spell il 1t was sort of cross between
the breathing of asthmatic elephant and
the braying of a superanuated donkey,
whose will lasted longer than his wind.
Well. it thus continued with the regu-
larity of the whip-poor-will's coy, until,
say halfan hour before day broke, when
]. M. w. (Jim w. we'll say,) whose
stock Of patience had long ago evapor-
ated, unrolled himself from his blanket;
saying his usual quiet way, "Humph!
I'll step that internal concert or start
the maker of it, see ifI don't Umph!n
he then awoke Jim A. and the Judge,
when a plot was laid and thus carried
into execution.
w. got his hunting knife and going
to where the offal Of large dear had
been thrown he cut off about seven
feet of gut, and securing the ends with
twine to retain the contents, he tied
one end oi it tight and fast to a corner
of Paddy's shirt-tail that had wandered
through a"rint"iH the seat ofhis breech-
es, coiing it all up smooth by his side,
snake-ike and true. All things thus
arranged. the oonspirators laid down
again, and at the conclusion of one of
the stage horn sreres with the .'snake
sowls" variation, Jim A. roared out at
the top of his voice, "Hy WEE! HU
WEE! A big copper-headed black rat
te-snake, eleven feet long, has crawl
ed up my breeches and is tying him.
self into a double -bow-knot round my
bodyw giving the lrishman, with eve
ry word, a furious dig in the side with
his elbow, with running accompani-
ment on his shins with his heels! OIL
course this hurting awoke him quick and
wide; in his first mo ovement he laid his
lead on the nice cold coil Of gut at his
'ide. Kissing out "Jayzue'' from be-
:ween his clenched teeth, he made a
pound that carried him some ten feet
clear ofthe camp, and with force that
'traightened out the coil and made the
makes, tail crack like cart whip!-
casting one wild blazing look behind
le tore off with the rapidity Of light
ling around the camp in circle Of ;
ome forty feet across, and at eyeryIl