American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-09-25
A Canada Snake Story.

IT is very seldom that the newspapers OF
the Dominion are called upon to chron-
icle a genuine snake story. Rattiesnakes
and copperheads are so few and far be-
tween that they are very seldom met with
and their depredations are never heard Of
However, genuine snake story comes
| from Ancaster this week. the victim being
a young girl named Lucy Smith, residing
in the village of Ancaster, and the reptile
one of those hideous. yellow-spotted mon
sters known as milk snakes. The girl
Lucy had gone out in the morning with
her pail for the purpose of picking buckle
| berries. Her feet and ankles were quite
bare, but Lucy, like most young country
girls, was hardy and strong, and picked
her way through the brambles with as
much gra &c and courage as an Indian.
All she remembered of her misfortune
| is, that as she was walking through some
burdocks she stepped upon something soft,
Shiny and crawling, and on feeling sting
ing sensation in her ankle, like the touch
of thistle, looked down, and to her mex
pressible horror beheld a huge milk snake
of extraordinary proportions Irvine itself
about her leg and strike at it with distend-
ed hood and jaws. She remembered moth
ing more than that she screamed, until she
found herself in her own bed at home.
Fortunately, at the time of her adventure,
several men were working in an oat-held
near by, and having seen the girl go into
the berry patch, and hearing shortly after
ward a piercing scream, which told OF
fear, repugnauce and agony as plain as
words could have done, they fastened in
to the patch, and after search of half an
hour gave it up as bad job, arguing that
probably the girl had been stung by a
wasp or some other ven0mous insect, and
had left the berry patch by some other OBJ
scure way.
After the men had gone back to their
work three little girls entered the patch
for the purpose of picking berries. They,
too, shortly afterward commenced to
scream one after another, and ran into the
field where the men were working, when
one of the girls fell down in fit. The
others told the men as well rs they could
| through their fear and excitement that
Lucy Smith was lying in the berry patch
and that big worm had killed her and
was eating her up. They Immediately
fastened to the patch, where they beheld
a sight which was enough to make the
blood of the strongest man run cold.
There lay the unfortunate girl in dead
swoon and in her lap lay large milk
snake, which was very jealous of its prey.
The conduct of the hideous reptile as the
men approached was peculiar in the ex-
IRENE. With its hood and head distended,
It's leu jaws Nlut opcH, ITO lung, SuPPiS
tongue striking maliciously right and
left, it ran around its victim almost erect
on its tail, kissing savagely and making
that strange, grinding noise which
is possessed by only one reptile of
the snake family, the milk snake. Rage,
jealousy and excitement had made the
creature as supple as a cat, so that it was
almost impossibleto strike it with stone;
besides, the men were afraid to throw
with any force from fear of striking the
helpless and PROSTATE child. Sometimes
the reptile charged with such rapidity and
fury that the men were forced to retreat,
when the creature would return to its vic
tim and coil itself in her lap. A nelghbor,
seeing the disturbance, arrived with
pitchfork and succeeded in transfixing the
snake, which measured three feet two
inches in length, and seven inches in cir
eumference at the largest part OF its body.
The unfortunate girl was carried home,
when it was found that her leg was terri
bly, swollen and Of a spotted green color
like that of the snake itself. The mother
Of the child, without the slightest hesita,
ton, commenced to suck the wound and
soon reduced the swelliEg and drove away
the color, after which llawing poultice
of red cabbage was applied, and ere morn