The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-03-25
ABOUT SNAKES.
Ancient and Modern Serpents Dis.
cussed by the Clabber Club.

Ancient and Modern Serpents Dis
cussed by the C1abber Club.
CANTO I.
Il will tell you gentlemen" remarked
Judge Vertrees, of Tennessee, to little
group of Graham's philosophers and
who sat enjoying a Sunday
evening siesta under the fragrant orange
boughs of the sidewalk; I'll tell you [
have been acquainted with a great many
snakes-in the grass and otherwise, and
l am piously prejudiced against them.
Why am Ipiously prejudicedT Because
[ get it from the law Of Moses-the Old
Book. Moses was a snakist and what he
didn't know about the snake of his time
was hardly worth putting in the Five
Books. Indeed, pursued the Judge, blow
ing a whirlwind Of Havana from his
mouth, according 10 Moses, the Divinity
himself was also an expert among serpents
but why this was so. the man Of much
meekness has not seen fit to explain. 1t
is plain, however, that he wishes us to
believe that display of snake lore was
potent in oyerawing unregenerate Egyp-
tan sand recalcitrant Israeiites and l. am
led to infer that Moses is the real father
Of that style of literature, now so popular
in the American newspaper, known as
''snalle stories. "
You will recall, said the Judge (shak-
ing his fat forefnger at Governor Towns,
the head clerk the graphic snake story
about which the son-in-law Of Jethro has
spoke, now the serpent was more sub
tie than any beast Of the field" This goes
to prove, gentlemen, that at this epoch,
this era in Mosaic reptilian history
the serpent was blessed with legs and
could stand on these legs and express
himself in choice Hebrew. Am [ not
right 1 appeal gentlemen to your clear
sense Of understanding Am l not cor
rectT Of course [ am.
CANTO II.
''Of course you are" remarked Majo2
Ochilla Royal, Of Virginia; u well re-
member Judge, to have read somewhere,
or heard it read, that the snake started
the first horticultural society and deliv-
cred the acknowledgement adj
dress called Fruits and Flowers, and after
this address, which, by the by, am told,
was a success, he was stricken to the
earth and eat dust-'Upon thy belly shalt
thou go and dust thou shalt eat all
the days Of thy life2,-I believe is this
scripture. and this proves to my conpre-
hension that if the snake was not q ser
pent previous to this curse, that he be
came so from that moment 1t also helps
to prove, continued the Major, ''the
evolution, because if the snake, being q
serpent, ate dust for a constant diet in
the time of Moses he has evidently evo-
luted since, for the snake Of to-day does
not, cannot and will not eat dust. He
won't eat it because he has no taste foI
it and he does not eat it because it clogs
up the salivary of his swallowing appa-
ratus, in which dust is about as needfuI
as sand in the eye
CANTO III.
Tut, tut, " remarked Governor Towns.
of Georgia, who had been a somewhat
impatient listener 50 these observations
and who was eager to get a whack at the
subject. Look at Egypt to-day full OF
war and snakes just as it used to be, and
as we probably get our faith from India
and from Egypt, the serpentine mytholo-
gy of Moses is accounted for: but that
does not account for the sacred subtIety
of the snake. Egyptian literature is full
of snakes. Everybody has certainly
read Of or seen the engravings of the ser
penis in the ancient coronets of the Nile
Everybody has read or heard Of Mrs.
Ptolemy and the asp, which is a very an
Gent story, very salacious yarn, and
therefore paved all over by the poets. ]
care little about old Mrs. Ptolemy, but ]
am interested in the asp, hence l give the
true story as follows:
She put him to her bosom.
Then she pinched his little tail;
The serpent gave a wggle
And the SOrccrcSS Il wall
And then she cried 20 Antony 50
And turned exceeding pale
But the serpent died instanter
While the Ptolcmy went To Jail
The story shows conclusively that Mrs
Ptolemy (nee Cleopatra) although % stu
dent of reptilian sorcery, as Moses was.