Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-04-14
THE SNAKE BIT FRESHMAN.

A correspondent of the New York Spi-
rit of the Times, gives "An Original Ten
nessee Hunting Incident" that will pass:
A Jolly party of sportsmen, made up
of veteran hunters, ripe for sport and full
of fun, were enjoying themselves for a
few weeks in the mountains of Morgan
county, Tennessee. A huge, raw-boned,
louuacious Irishman, unlimited, quarter
cd himsclrin their camp, and in addition
to being q nuisance, when awake, snored
so terri6cally when asleep, as to drive
tired natures sweet rcstorer' from 9th
ers. Pat was afraid of snakes generally,
and 'ould snakes in particular, and the
awful yarns he heard in the hunters
camp, walked snake in every hair on
the Irishman's head, After listening one
evening to few yarns on the so much
dreaded snake ubject, this fresh son of
the sod prepared to turn in, literally
crawling all over. Counting his beads
and his chances of being snake bit before
day, and tucking in his blanket, and wish
ing the sowls of all the snakes in these
parts in particular, in country where, to
say the least, they would stand but a slim
chance of indulging in natural torpldity'
he fell asleep,
And now the storm began. His sno-
ring grew fast and furious, long and loud,
occasionally a snort or half snort, half
grunt, terminating with snakes, be ia
bers. blast their soWls Ugh " and then
came the variation of chorus i'll the shape
of grind of his teeth, that threatened to
drive them through his jaw or crush them
to powder, by way Of variety he would hold
his breath few seconds, and then snore
again-0nd such snoring my stars, that
could spell it 1t was IL sort of cross
between the breathing of an aIthmatic
elephant and the braying Of a superanua-
ted donkey, whose will lasted longer than
his wind We'll, it thus continued with
the regularity Of whippoorwill's cry,
till say a half an hour before daybreak,
when J. NJ. w. (Jim W. we'll say } whose
stock of patience had long ago cvapora-
ted, unroled himself from his blanket,
saying i'll his usual quiet way, 'Humph
IN stop that Internal concert, or start the
maker of it, see if l don't He then
awoke up JIM A. and the Judge, when
the plot was laid and thus carried into
execution.
lie got his hunting knife, and going to
where the otFal of Il large deer had been
thrown, he cut off about seven feet of en-
trail, and securing the ends with tWine,
he tied one extremity oft to Paddy's nc
ther garment that had obtruded through
a 'rint' in the scat of his brceches, coillng
it all up smooth by his side, snake like
and true, All things thus arranged the
conspirators laid down again, and at the
conclusion of one of the stag-horn snores
with the snakes 'sowls' variation, Jim a.
roared out at the top of isvoice, 'H0, ere!
Hd we A big coppcr-head black rattle
snake, eleven feet long has crawled up my
brocchcr, and is tying himself into dou-
bic bow-kuot around my body! giving
the Irishman with every word furious
dig in the side with his elbow, running
accompaniment on the shins with his
heels. OF course this awoke him quick
and wide in his first movement he laid
his hand on the nice cold coil at his side.
Kissing out a terrific exclamation from
between his clenched teeth, he made a
bound that carried him some ten feet clear
of the camp; and with force that
straightened out the coil and made the
snakes tail crack like a cart whip.
Casting one wild blazing look behind,
he tore off with the rapidity of lightning
around the camp, in a circle some forty
feet across, and at every bound shouting,
or rather yelling, 'Saze i'm by the tall
Och, howly Virgin, stop i'm Och, Saint
rathrick, tarc i'm Until jiblets A what
A what. 11a; 1a,o i'm to smithers with q gun,
can't yees Och murther mur!her -
murthur he's forty fut long! On ma
king his last circuit, he ran through part
Of the smouldering camp fire, and the
wine at the end of the snake caught fire.
This brought a new terror, and added a
strong inducement for him to put on moro
steam and increase his speed. Round,
round he went. He's fiery sarpint
Och, murther, howlv Varrin, he carries
a hght 70 see how to bite by. Och, help
I'm swallowed Dumping log) intirely
all but my mead Tread ON his bloody
fiery tail, will yees? +? try to save me Z then
as if transported with new life and hone
he roared out, Shoot i'm but don't shoo
at his head! Shoot shoot!'
Now here was picture, There stood
heJudge, hugging a sapling with boil
arms and one leg, head thrown back
emitting scream after scream. Here la
Jim w. on his back, with his feet again:
tree, his arms elevated like child
when he wants you TO help him, and
was scream after scream with Jim. A
sounds at all like ordinary laughter ha
ceased and the present notes would hav
rendered immortal the vocal fame of
dozen panthers, accompanied in thei
concert by the fog-whistle of a steamboat