Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-08-29
SNAKE STORY.
Rather That Ran Train on the Nash
vile, Chattanooga and st.
Louis Railway.
Memphis Ledger.

Memphis Ledger.
The Avalanche has been trying to
steal march on the Ledger's re-
served copyrighted snake story. We
have resisted all Establishments thus
far, but in spirit of accommodation
for the benefit of our neighbor, the
following tolerably fair snake story,
from the Nashville Union of the Goth,
is reproduced:
Henry Andrews, an old engineer on
the Nashville, Chattanooga and st.
Louis railway, tells an interesting
story about the capture of his engine
in 1881, when he was pulling" pas
senger train. His engine was No. Sc,
and he pulled out of Nashville with a
full train of passengers bound for
Chattanooga, Knoxville and other
points. At Stevenson, Alabama, they
stopped to wood up, which they had to
carry in their arms. They started
again, and Just before reaching An
dersOn Station, Jim Wilson, the fire.
man, who had turned around to get
some wood, sang out, "Great Scot!
look at that rattler." al jumped, said
the engineer, @as he uttered the words,
and to my horror, saw tremendous
rattesnake climbing down from the
tender with half his body over the
platform. Ny hair commenced to
crowd my cap off my head, and to say
| was scared doesn't begin to express
it. Jim gave a yell, and when | looked
around two seconds later to see what
he was doing, saw the RATHER crawl
ing into the cab. But jim was no.
where to be seeu. He had jumped off
and left me. pulled back the throt-
tie and leaped over the snake, which
ratified as jumped, and landed in the
tender. Standing on log l watched
that snake take possession OF the cab,
which he did without any ceremony.
The steam was not completely shut of,
and knowing that the train full of
passengers was at the mercy of the
snake, | went back toward the cab with
"A stick in my hand, when the snake,
hearing the noise | made, elevated his
tail and shook it in a lively fashion.
That settled it. BY this time we had
crossed the mountain and were sailing
along lively. No. 6 was waiting for US
at Stevenson, and knew If the snake
run the engine till we got there, the
coroner would be kept busy for a week.
Crawling over the tender and making
my way to the mail car, | hurriedly
told my story to Charlie Henderson,
the messenger, and Frank Armstrong,
expressman. We held a consultation
and decided that something must be
done, and that quickly. The train
was moving along lively, and the
thought of No. at Stephenson made
us fairly wild. Aiming ourselves
with pistols furnished us by the postal
and expressmen, we carefully crept
out to the tender and, looking into the
cab, saw that dog goned RATHER
stretched out on the board by the win
dow. Well, it didn't take more than
three seconds for us to put three bull
lets into his carcass. They struck him
so quickly and thoroughly that before
he could get chance to rattle, he was
as dead as Hector. Grabbing u stick,
jumped into the cab, threw the snake
out of it and got hold of that throttle.
Well, to make a long story short, |
landed old So on time at Stevenson,
and, strange to say. the first man l saw
was the Coroner, but thank heaven,
there were no inquests for him to
hold"
Until the Avalanche, assisted by the
New York Herald, can beat that, the
Ledger will not skirmish around for
any more snake stories.