Louisiana capitolian., 1881-08-13
THE PRIZE SNAKE STORY.


Dogs go mad, rattle.sn snakes strike at
every tree, and men tell lofty lies at this
season We copy the following from
the Williausport (Ga.) Sun and Ban
ner as the ultima thule of high art in
that direction
When within about hundred feet of
the fence surrounding the pasture, heard
q loud Kissing sound, and turning to dis
cover it's origin, received a tremendous
blow across the chest, and in an instant
found myself encircled by huge rattle
snake and lifted to at least twenty feet
into the air, where ! was held. The pres
sure round my waist by the coil Of the
snake was so great you could clearly hear
the bones creak. Kate, without waiting
forsme to scream and supplicate assist
ance, as I'd have done in her dilemma,
pulled up spear Of herdsgrass and be-
gan to tickle the snakes belly as he thus
stood perpendicular, holding me aloft.
This was more than his majesty could
stand, and he rapidly unwound himself
and dropped me to the ground, breaking
my arm in the fall. As soon as | could
get on my feet made the most of my
freedom and started to run for home,
forgetting all about Kate, until ! heard
a clear musical laugh, which recalled
me again to my senses. | turned and
found her still tickling the snake, who
had stretched himself out full length on
the ground and was receiviSe the opera
ton with every manifestation of delight.
forgot the excruciating pain of my bro
ken arm in the novelty of the scene.
Presently be gave sort of prolonged
singing sound and showed signs of being
sleepy gradually coiling himself up into
utter insensensibility. Tickling had the
effect of an opiate.
While we were neditating what course
20 pursue, onr attention was directed to-
wards the Rock" and forth from every
tissuTe and hole came multitude of sim.
liar snakes, making directly for the place
where we were standing. OF course we
thought our last hour had come, but
were overjoyed when we found them
stretch themselves on the ground after
the manner Of their predecessor, evident.
ly inviting us to tickle them. The sing
ing sound had reached them as an utter.
ance of iov.
Knowing "a refusal was positive death
we secured more stTaws and commenced
business. Similar results followed the
operation, and amidst our terrible
position, we could not help appre
ciating the ridiculous side affairs had
taken. In the course of an hour we had
all of them asleep. We then cut of
their heads, throwing them into a pile
by themselves. They numbered one
hundred and seventy-one, besides the
big one that attacked me and which W.
did not iniure. Kate and ! then got &
rail from the fence and putting il
through the coil of the big snake carried
him home, where put him in a pen Sc
securely that he could not get ava,
when bis nap was over. My arm b,
this time was troubling me intensely
but wanted to collect the decapitatet
heads we had left in the field as an evi
dence Of our combat, so we took thu
team and drove over to the spot. W.
found the heads inst as we left them
but the snakes had all crawled away
We brought the heads home and pre-
served them in alcohol, and they can b.
seen by any one desirous of proving th
accuracy of the above statement. Th
i've snake which | secured, ! resolved
to tame and put his immense strength
to a more useful purpose than squeez
ing the breath out Of mans BODY.
have every reason to be proud of my ex
pertinent and its results. Our famil,
was large and the washings immense
but my ingenuity has reduced the labo
one-hah We don't wiring the clothe
any more. They are thoroughly wash
ed, laid carefully in a pile, and tn
snake coils himself around them an,
sqneezes them dry as jiffy. / hav
refused large offers for the purchase o
this snake from many who 60 hundred
+ OF miles out of their course to see thi
wonderful performance.