Connecticut western news., 1872-11-01
The Rattlesnake's Enemy,

Of all enemies with which the rattle snake has to contend, except man, the hog is the most destructive. An'old SOW with litter of pigs to provide food for, will hunt for the reptile with persever- ance and sagacity truly astonishing, tracking them by their scent to their escape. In the West in early times, and now throughout the country, if rattle snakes become troublesome in any local ty, drove of hogs are turned into their haunts and the snakes soon disappear. The hog, when it sees rattlesnake, in- stantly erects it's bristles and back, and commences rattling its tusks. The snake accepts the challenge, and prepares for defense. The old porker seems to un- derstand whatparts of it's body are invul- nerable to poison, so it gets down upon it's knees, and in this awkward position deliberately crawls by sideling motion, up to the enemy. The snake darts for ward and the hog dextrously catches the fangs in. the fat of the jaws-the blow is repeated, and the hog having been smitten on one cheek deliberately turns the other. This the animal continues to do until the snake has not only ex- hausted for the time being, its poison, but also it's strength. The hog then de- iberately rises from it's knees, and now regardless of consequences, seizes the serpent near the head, and putting its forefoot upon it's squirming body, strips the reptile through it's teeth, and thus tears it to pieces. If the hog, as is sometimes the case happens to be very lean, and the poison fangs thereby strike 1 the circulation it will die from the wound, but this conjunction rarely takes place.
 KNOCKED ABOUT IN THE WoRLD.-It is good thing for young man to be ''knocked about in the world, though his soft.hearted parents may not think so. All youths, or if not all, nineteen twentieths of the sum total, enter life with surplus of self-conceit. If, in measuring themselves with wiser and older men than they are, they discover that 1t is unwarranted, and get rid of it gracefully, of their own accord, we'll and good if not, it is desirable, for their own sakes, that it be knocked out of them. A boy who is sent to large school soon finds his level. His will may have been paramount at home, but school boys are democratic in their ideas, and, if arrogant are sure to be thrashed into a recogni- tion of the golden rule. The world is a great public school, and it soon teaches a new pupil his proper place. If he has the attributes that belong to leader he will be enstalled in the position of a leader if not, whatever his own opinion of his abilities may be, he will be com pelled to fall in with the rank and file. If not destined to greatness, the next best thing to which he can aspire is re- spectability i; but no man can be truly great or respectable who is vain, pom pous and overbearing.
 By the time the novice has found his legitimate social position, be the same high or low, the probability is that the disagreeable traits of his character will be softened down or worn away. Most likely the process of abrasion will be rough, but when it is all over, and he begins to see himself as others see him, and not as reflected in the mirror of self. conceit, he will be thankful that he has run the gauntlet, and arrived, though by rough road, at self-knowledg ge Upon the whole, whatever loving mothers may think to the contrary, it k @ good thing for youths to be knocked about in the world-it makes men o them.