The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-10-10
OLD.TIME SNAKES.
A Practical Joke sWhOse Recollection
Caused the Death OF Its Perpetrator.

A Practical Joke SWhOse Recollection
Caused the Death OF Its Perpetrator.
In the olden time, when the prairies
of Illinois had not yet been fenced in,
snakes were plentiful.
In that day and age OF the world,
women did not gather up their skirts
and climb up on the table if anybody
inadvertently said mouse" They
seized rolling-pin, dust brush or stove
hook, and looked calmly around over
their shoulders as much as to say:
"Show me the bloody monster. ct
me get crack at him with this, and
let him examine himself with micro
scope to see how much mouse is left.
Show me the horFid brute and let me
knock him out in one roundr
The serpents that infested the unfet-
tered wastes of prairie were bad. They
were more numerous than black-birds
are now, and some of them were so poi-
sonous that it made mans leg swell
and sent him screaming to the whisky
jug to look at them. They roamed
through the orchards and meadows and
glided across the lawns and gardens
many times every day, and when the
members of the family were gathered
around the festal board at evening, the
boy or girl that had not killed one or
more snakes during the day was set
down as lazy-bones and sent to bed
without SUP per in dire disgrace, but of
ten redeemed himself or herself as the
case might be, by going to bed with a
garter snake or two and hastily rising,
taking it by the tail and jerking its head
off whip-cracker fashion. 1t was not
then an uncommon occurrence for men
and women to go to bed alone in the
evening and awake in the morning to
find rattlesnake sharing his or her re-
pose, and when q thrifty housewife
made such discovery as that, she did
not allow her bed-fellow to lie there and
doze away the best part of the day in
idleness. She got hoe and yanked him
out on the floor and then bruised his
head while he monkeyed around trying
to bruise her heel, Just to carry out the
programme of Genesis.
Old Soloman Snarman was a practical
joker to certain extent, and when he
removed with his wife Betsey, from York
State to Eelinoy," he was more or less
surprised at the amount of time he was
obliged to devote to snake killing. He
got to be mononaniac on snakes, and
they entered into his conversation by
day and his dreams by night until he
could not talk or think of anything else
At last It came to such pass that pool
Beteey's life was one uninterrupted
round of snakes. While bending Over
her wssh-tub, her spouse would stealth
lily approach her from behind and vel
''snakesr' at the top of his voice, bu
she would whirl round and slap him
with handful-fvll Of soap -suds anC
then no would become melancholl,
and have snake nightmare that nigh
for want of good, hearty laugh. In
der his condition of melancholia, h,
grew thin and wretched and his diges
ton began failing, so he resolved within
himself that unless he could have som,
fun at Betsey's expense, he would grad
ually pine away and die, so he went Il
the barn and taking his black-snak
! whip out of the wagon, concealed it be
tween the sheets of their bed, and whel
Betsey's bare feet touched the whip, ant
she stopped and breathed hard, Solomon
sprang out of bed and yelled ''snakes!'
at the top of his voice, and then the
slowly turned down the covers, an,
! Betsey trembled while they made tn
discovery that it was the whip and not
snake, and then she chased Solomon al
around the place and helhsd so muc
fun that he felt himself coming BAG
: from the tomb at rousing gate.
To-day, Solomon is in his grave. II
: has been there several years. He wen
l in hurry and several years before
would have gone il he had not put hi
whip in the bed He awoke one nigl
+, and felt something cold gliding acroe
hislfeet, so he sprang out of bed with tn
: old cry of ''snakes!n and Betsey slowl
and grimly slid out of bed on the opp
site side and then they turned up tn
I light and turned down the covers, an
Betsey, remembering her whip exp
e rience, seized the black thing that la
: there and flsyed Solomon with it unit
he lay on the floor bleating like sheel
d for he knew it was a genuine snak
!. while Betsey thought il another joke
9 his with the whip. He always SCENE
: sad afterward, and in about year,
9 died, a victim of his own joke. ThroWG
u MoH
it No immediate danger Of intellectu
g overwork threatens the pupils OF Il
2 | no,,an,n,, nnhoolr Of Coo..,.in II, the I.