The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1880-02-26
A Railroad Blockaded by Snakes.

A Railroad Blockaded by Snakes.
A letter in the St. Louis Globe-De
crat says: In Northwest Missouri, where
ex-Gov. R. NJ. Stewart resided years be-
fore and after bis 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 a snake story which have never
seen in print. In those days, said the
governor, snakes were not only uncom-
monty 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 the building of the road have
seen them 80 troublesome and numerous
that the hands would sometimes stop
work and inaugurate - 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-
ton with which the Almighty endowed
every creature. At night they would
sometimes make sleep impossible by
Kissing 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. 1twas
only now and 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-
les 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 fiat cars was at the last camping
place, about ten miles in the rear of the
track builders. I was there awaiting
the landing of some tools and spikes,
which it was intended to convey to the
end of the road. 1t had been raining
all morning, but cleared up about noon,
and when we pulled out after dinner the
weather was pleasant but little hazy.
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 for short
distance being black with them and en-
tirely lost to sight. The engine-driver
opened the throttle, and in q 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 of the train was slackened.
The wheels of the engine were almost
ciogged with crushed snakes, and still
the track was actually buried beneath
them for one hundred yards in front of
US. We did not succeed in 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 off
the engine. We were detained nearly
an hour before the grand march of the
serpents 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 they
seemed to cover the earth.