Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-08-12
Snakes in Pennsylvania.
Workmen Demanding Double Pay to
Gather the Harvest-Pitched Battle
with the Reptiles.
[From the {Phila.) Times.l


Gather the Harvest-PItcned Battle
with the Reptiles.
[From the {Phila.) Timesl
There are scores of oracle sin Chester county
who are Just as experienced and well inform
ed as any who ever whitfield around a country
store stove, or waited for samaritans at
wayside tavern, but not one of them can
account for the extraordinary number of
snakes that invest that part of the State this
year. Copperheads, vipers and blacksnakes
are as numerous as blackberrries, and, what is
most remarkable, they at once attack instead
of retreating from those who disturb them.
For many years the country cor miles around
the falls of French creek, and even across
the Montgomery county line, has been in
tested with venomous reptiles, and in some
cases death has resulted from their attacks.
Last summer a German farm hand named
Flickmyer was attacked by three copperheads
and before he killed them with his scythe he
received two wounds Five miles away lived
Mrs. Debney, an old woman who has for
years made speciality of curing people that
were wounded by snakes. Flickmyer went
at once to her house and she promptly killed
a chicken, and halving it, bound the bleeding
meat over the wounds She gave him salve
to apply on the following day, and he went
to his house in Reading, where he died in
commissions twenty hours later.
FARMERS BLOOD CHILLING TALES.
Old 1nnaD1tantS OF CneSGef county I9ll IT,
narkable stories of monster snakes that lived
in the rocks along French creek and chased
people with unpleasant determination. Then
there was the mythical hoop-snake, that
held it's tail in its mouth, forming a sort of
animated cart-wheel. which rolled along with
such velocity that noordinary runner could es
cape it if he did not run zig zaggedly. It is said
| that in more than one case, when a man
escaped by lodging behind tree, the enrag
| ed hooper would strike the sting in his tail
| into the tree so deeply, that he could not
| pull it out and was easily killed Tradition
| has it that the poison in the hooper's tai
| always killed the tree it struck. Fortunately
| these revolving reptiles, if they existed, are
believed to be extinct, as is the whip snake
which is credited with coiling around a cap
| tured man and thrashing him with his tai
| until the poor mortal sank from exhaus
| ton.
The comprehend, however, is startling
| reality, as every farmer in South Coventry
township and French Creek falls distric
| will testify. For weeks past scores of farm
| ers go to their work armed with shotguns
So numerous are the sna. es along the banks
of French creek that there are many place
through which no native could be induced t.
walk at night On the farm of David Schweil
er the snakes were SO numerous that hi
harvest hands refused to work, and six o
them left in a body, and the proprietor o
the farm shot eleven large blacksnakes, fiv
| COpperh6aQS ana three V1perS Oh lis plauCh
ton one Sunday mornin in July.
FIGHTING AN ARMY OF SNAKES.
rocky little ravine that makes int
French creek short distance below the bi
Chester pike has long been known grea
resort for snakes, and on Thursday last Sam
uel Lowry and three other men invaded tn
place and dug hole five feet deep in wha
was believed to be the centre of the der
While the others worked Lowry stood guar
I TO- fho hot CTR RI
ed by the diggers and came wriggling out
| do battle. Before the hole was fnishs
Lowry shot thirteen snakes, five of whic
were copperheads. Ten pounds of giar
powder were then sunk in the hole and afte
being we'll tamped the pit was filled up an
the fuse lighted. Tons of rock and cart
were thrown up by the terrific explosio
that followed and the debris covere
with writhing pieces of reptiles that had bee
killed. 1t is belived that more than hur
, dred blacksnakes, copperheads, hlghlan
vipers and water snakes were killed by tn
explosion.
FARMER ELLIoTT's ADVENTURE.
Since wheat harvest began Samuel Elliott
of South Coventry township, has killed THU
ty-eight snakes, mostly copperheads, on hi
farm, and still the place is SO infested the
it is not safe to cross it unarmed. One da
last week when Mr.. Elliott was harvestin
| oats he disturbed a huge blacksnake. A,
|
| pectedly, the great size of this startle
him and he ran for his shotgun. which stoo
in fence corner near by. The reptile
| once gave chase, but Mr.. Elliott succeede
in reaching the gun and mounting ra
fence before the snake got up. When til
snake came to the fence it raised itself I
reach Mr.. Elliott, who then shot and kille
it. This snake is said to have been five fe'
nine inches long and thicker than mans arm
Although blacksnakes are not believed to
venomous, their great size and the habit the
have of chasing people make them as muc
| dreaded as the copperhead.
| David Minturn, John Zeck and half
dozen others have been struck by blacksnak
| this summer, but the swelling which followe
the inhiction of each wound was reduce
by simples and the patients quickly recove
| ed, The copperhead, however, is very DC
sonous, and Mr.. Elliott, who was wounded
one last August and narrowly escaped wit
his life says he still feels the effect of IL
vsnom.
DEMANDING DOUBLE WAGES.
In rocky places in Coventry township it
no uncommon thing to see twenty or thir
copperheads, each from two to two and
half feet long, basking in the sun and sho'
ing fight when approached by man. G.
Mishler had ten-acre field of wheat to ha
vest and the reaper decapitated seven snak
in cutting two swathes around the field I'll
number of snakes frightened the horses
| that 1t was tOund Impossible TO dr1Ve Lne
up to the standing grain. The grain hi
to be graded, but the two farm hands wi
did it exacted double wages for the work
account of the snakes. When the unc
grain was reduced to about half an acre
was alive with snakes and the workm.
killed seventeen in less than an hour. Jol
Miller has killed twenty copperheads al
blacksnakes on his farm in Coventry tow
ship this summer and the place is still infes
ed.
Day after day John Houseman's your
poultry disappeared and never came bac
He could not account for it until last Frida
when hearing an unusual -futtering in
- young turkey coop he ran there and saw
blacksnake, about three feet long, crawl o
of the coop with young turkey in it's mout
| The snake dropped the bird on the grou1