The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-08-10
GREAT SNAKE PLAGUE.
A PLAcEwHERE REPTILES RUN RIOT.
Alarm OF Chester Couaty, Pa, Ptopie-workmeu
+ Demanding Uoubis Pay to Gather the Harvest.
Armed Farmers Constantly or Guard.
a Pitched Battles With the Snakes.

PHILADELPHIA, August D.-Tlerc NJ
scores OF oracles in Chester county who NJ
Just lis experienced and well informed Q
any who ever whitfield around a countr
store stove or waited for Samaritans ut
wavside tavern, but not one OF them cal
account for the extraordinary numbers c
snakes that iniest that part OF the Sta.
this year. Copperheads, vipers and black
snakes are rs numerous rs blackberries
and, what ismost remarkable, they at ono,
attack instead OF oiretreating from those VIII,
disturb them. For many years the coun
try for miles around the Falls OF Frencl
Creek, and even across the Montgomer,
county line, has been infested with veno
nous reptiles, and in some cases death ha!
resulted from their attacks. Last summer ;
German farm hand named Flickmyer wal
attacked by three copperhcads and beior,
he killed them with his sythe he received
two wounds. Five miles away lived Mrs
Debney, an old woman, who has for years
made specially Of curing people that were
wounded by snakes. Flickmyer went aI
once 10 her house and she promptly killed
chicken and, halving it, bound the bleed
ing meat over the wounds. She gave him
salve TO apply Oh the following day, and he
went 10 his house in Reading, where he
died in convulsions twenty hours Inter.
Old inhabitants Of Chester county tell re.
markable stories OF monster snakes thu,
lived in the rocks along French creek and
chased people with unpleasant determine.
tion. Then there was the mythical hoop.
snake, that held its tail in its mouth, form.
ing a sort OF an animated clrt-wheel. which
rolled along with such velocity that no or.
dinary runner could escape it II he did
not run zig.zaggedly. II is said that in more
than one case, when nun lodged behind
Il tree, the enraged hooper would strike the
sting in his tail into the tree so deeply tha,
lie could not pull it out and was easily
killed. Tradition has it that the poison in
the hooper's tail always killed the tree i,
struck. Fortunately those revolving rep.
tiles, il they ever existed, are believed TO
be extinct, as is the whip.snake, which is
credited with coilirg around captured
man and thrsshin2 him with his tail until
the poor mortal sank from exhaustion.
The copperhead, however, is startling
| reality, rs every farmer in South Coventry
township and the French Creek Falls dis.
trict will testify. For weeks past scores OF
farmers 20 to their work armed with shot.
guns. So numerous are the snakes along
the barfks OF French creek that there are
many places through which no native
could be induced to walk at night. On the
farm OF David Schweiler the snakes were
SO numerous that his harvest hands re.
fused to work, and six OF them LETT in a
body. and the proprietor OF the farm sho,
eleven large blacksnakes, five copperheads
and three ripers on his plantation one Sun.
day morning in July.
4 rocky little rlvine that makes into
French creek short distance below the
biz Chester pike has long been known as
4 great resort Tor snakes, and on Thursday
last Samuel Lowry and three other men
invaded the place and dug hole five feet
deep in what WAS believed 10 be the centre
OF the den. While the others worked
Lowry stood guard TO shoot the many rep.
tiles that were disturbed by the digscrs and
came wrir.ling out 10 do battle. Before
the hole was finished Lowry shot thirteen
snakes, five OF which were copperheads,
Ten pounds Of giant powder were then
sunk in the hole and after being well
tamped the pit was filed up and the fuse
lighted. Tons OF rock and earth were
thrown up by the terrific explosion that
followed and the debris was covered with
writGins pieces OF reptiles that had been
killed. 1t is believed that more than n
hundred black snakes, copperheadS, high.
land yipers and water snakes were killed
by the explosion,
Since wheat harvts: began Samuel Eli.
ott, OF South Coventry township, has killed,
thirty-eight snakes, mostly copperheads,
on his farm, and still! the place is so iuies,.
ed that II is not sale TO cross it unarmed,
One day las. week, when Mr.. Elliott was
harvesting oats, he disturbed huge black
snake. Accustomed as lie is to meeting
snakes unexpectedly, the great size OF this
one startled him and he nln for his shot.
gun, which stood in fence corner near br,
When the snake came 10 the fence il RAISED!
itself 10 reach Mr.. Elliott, who then gbot
and killed it. This snake lis said 10 have
been five ieet nine inches long and thicker
than mans arm. Although blacEsnakes
are not believed to be venomous, their
size and the habit they have OF chasing
people make them as much dreaded as the
copperhead.
David Minturn, John Zeck and hall q
dozen Others have been struck by black.
snakes this summer, but the swelling which
followed the intliC,iou OF each wound was
reduced by slmples and the patients Quick.
ly recovered. The copperhead, however.
is very poisonous, and Mr.. Elliott, who was
wounded by one last August and narrowly
escaped with his life, says he still feels the
effect OF the venom. .+57.
In rocky places in Coventry township i,
is no uncommon thing 10 see twenty or
thirty copperheads, each from two to two
and half feet long, baskiug in the sun
and showing fight when approached by
man G. r. MishieE hsd len.ac,e field
OF wheat to harvest and the reapers decapi.
tated seven snakes in cutting two swathes
around the field. The number OF snakes
frightened the horses SO that it was found
impossible TO drive them up 10 the stand.
ing grain. The grain had 10 he Graded,
but tie two farm hands who did it exac.ed
double wages for the work on account OF
the snakes. When the uncut grain was re-
duced to half an acre it was alive with
snakes and the workmen killed seventeen
in less than an hour. John Miller has
Killed twenty eopperheadsan blacksnakes
on his farm in Coventry township this
summer and the place is st:h infested. y
Day aile! day John IIousemans young
poultry disappeared and never came back.
He could not ACCOUNT iorit until last Fri.
day, when hearing an unusual hutteriDg in
a young turkey coop he ran there and saw
a. b!acksnake ahoNt three feet long, crawl
out Of the coop with young turkey in lis
mouth, The snake dropped the corpse on
the ground and, 10 Mr.. Houseman's aston
ishment, went back into the coop. In the
meantime three much larger snakes, which
were coiled up near by made "a rush for tho
corpse OF the little turkey, There was an
other iiuitef in the coop, and out came the
small snake with another turkey, which
like the frs: was dropped on the ground.
The little snake. which was ;us, able TO
Wri.gle itself between the Stats Of the coon