The Newtown bee., 1880-02-04
A Railroad Blockaded by Snakes.

A letter in the St. Louis Gt00e-Denao- crat says: In Northwest Missouri, where ex-Gov. R. M Stewart resided years be- fore and after his political career, up to the time of his death. many old citizens love to tell of his brilliant conversational powers and inexhaustible fund of anec- dotes. The governor often told of the difficulties which he had to surmount, and in one of his happiest moods he re- lated snake story which have never seen in print. In those days, said the governor, snakes were not only uncom- monly numerous, but infested certain portions of the State to such an extent that farmers would often pack up their household wares and remove elsewhere. During tile building of the road have seen them so troublesome and numerous that the hands would sometimes stop work and inaugurate a short campaign against them with shovelS, axes and crowbars. The serpents were not vicious, the men being hardly ever bitten, but the great vexation consisted in their sociability and perfect indifference to danger. They apparently were utterly devoid of that instinct of self-preserva- tion with which the Almighty endowed every creature. At night they would sometimes make sleep impossible by hissing and squirming in and about the tents, and during the day they would vex the men almost beyond endurance by running between their legs and otherwise annoying them. They were not considered dangerous. being of that species known as prairie hissers. ltwas only now aud then that rattler was discovered among them, and death was sure to follow, for the men would always stop and find time to chase one until he was overtaken and his head chopped of. The men always dreaded shower. for then the snakes were the worst. They would literally swarm out on the prair- ies and travel in schools. On one occa- sion of this kind, when the road was in course of construction in Livingstone county, the construction engine with three flat cars was at the last camping place, about ten miles in the rear of the | track builders. I was there awaiting tbe landing of some tools and spikes, which it was intended to convey to the end of the road. It had been raining all morning, but cleared up about noon, and when we pulled out after dinner the weather was pleasant but little hay. | We had travelled about half the distance when the engineer-I was riding on the engine-called my attention to the hun dreds of snakes crossing several hundred yards in front of us, the track fora short distance being black with them and en- tirely lost to sight. The epgine-driver opened the throttle, and in a few mo- ments we were crushing through them. The drivers had not made more than two or three revolutions when they be- gan 70 fly around at lightning rapidity. and the speed ot the train was slackened. 1 The wheels of the engine were almost | clogged with crushed snakes, and still the track was actually buried beneath them for one hundred yards in front of us. We did not succeed ill getting much more headway, when the train came to standstill. We were unable to make our way through them, and amused ourselves by knocking them of the engine. We were detained nearly an hour before the grand march of the serpeuts had crossed and we were en- abled to proceed. They seemed to be moving that day, and the earth seemed to be alive with them; indeed tbey seemed to cover the earth.