Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-09-11

maue up Dy rev. henry A. HaZen, gives the
following items: Number of churches,
4,569; gain, 1865; number of members, 475,-
COS; added on confession, p, 994; increase,
1904; baptisms, adult, S,32S; baptisms, in
FAINT, 2,0S9; Sunday-school members, 5SO,-
672; benevolent contributions of the
churches, S2,205, ,563; for foreign missions,
$340, ,426; for education, SAC, ,5S5; for church
building, Sis, ,072; for home missions, $44e,-
975; for A. NJ. A, SIS, 7,666; for Sunday
schools, s52, ,479; for new West, S45,S17; for
ministerial aid, SIZE, ,705; for other objects,
S795, $50; charitable legacies paid, e562, 12S.
bone expenditures, $4.97S.sS
Ats e~oT-lNDIAN GHOST.
It Proved TO BE . Boa Constructor Twenty
Feet in Length.
Almost every town or village has its
haunted house and the little village settle
ment of Wanda, in India, was no exception.
Here number of English officers and their
families live during the warmer months,
returning to their respective commands
later on. The rumor that Captain Beau
champs house was haunted was circulated
by servant-a superstitious old English
man who had followed the Captain all over
the world, and was, all things considered, a
faithful servitor. Thomas had for some DAYS
heard curious sounds about the house. At
first he thought there were rats or mice in
the wall He was awakened one night by
most extraordinary noise. The door-bell
was ringing violently, and struggling,
writhing noise in the wall Of the house
not In one place, but in several at once
This was followed by a complete silence,
and as Thomas sat up in bed, his hair
threatening to stand on end, he was posi-
tive he heard long-drawn sigh. This was
the last feather. So, leaping from the
couch, he rushed to his employers room and
aroused him, avowing that the place was
haunted, and few moments later the en-
tire household was in the room.
The notoriety so cheaply earned became
exceedingly disagreeable. First came
strangers, natives and others, who stood in
front of the house day and night and looked
at 1t with wondering curiosity. Matters
stood in this shape for some days, when one
morning party of jugSlers passed through
the town and finally reached the haunted
house. As there were a number Of children
In the family the performers were invited
into the grounds and gave an entertainment.
Finally, as winding up, one of them took
out small oval basket, having an orifice in
the top, and seating himself near it began
to play quaint air upon flute.
After industriously playing for few mo-
ments, says a correspondent of the Phila-
delphia Times, up through the hole IN the
basket came the head of a cobra-one of the
most poisonous of snakes-up came the
hldeous head with it's hood that gave a
malignant appearance to the reptile, and
when twelve or fifteen inches above the
basket it began to wave to and fro as if in
obedience to the measure of the music
After the snake dance-or the snake
"charming," as Europeans are wont to call
1.-THE Indian snake -charmer walked around
the house and among the bushes pointed
out hole which might have been made by
rabbit To one of the native attendants he
said that for a small sum extra he would
take out a cobra which he thought was in
the hole. The English officer did not be-
ieve it, but willingly submitted to the ex-
pertinent, and seating himself before the
hole the magician began his mournful
plant
For fifteen minutes he kept up the noise,
and then from the opening there appeared
the ugly, hooded head of cobra. Another
hole was soon found, this being directly at
the base of the wall of the house The man
examinedit a few moments carefully, and
then began to play upon the flute.
Hardly had the group gathered about the
performer before a most remarkable noise
came from the house. First, there was
sound as of escaping steam; then sound
OF some great body striking the wall and
rubbing against the timbers. Dust in
clouds came from the hole and the
'charmer'' started back in terror, over
turning the man behind him. Recovering
himself he darted at the hole and thrusting
his arm in drew out, not q cobra, but the
tail Of much larger snake. Astonishment
was depicted on the natives face and hor-
ror in those Of many Of the spectators, as
he stood holding the tip Of the tail, and five
feet of the body was visible
For second the man hesitated, then re-
gaining his courage he shouted in Hindoo-
stance for the lookers-on to stand back,
and taking good grip upon the tail he
pulled gradually backward Out it came. foot
by foot, inch by inch, 5, 10, Is, 16 feet-1S,
was there no end?-1S feet of qulvering
snake flesh as large as mans thigh.
A quick jerk now and the entire monster
was clear-at least twenty feet in length
big enough to swallow a deer, and vet held
by single man. The native was, however,
not in the least discouraged. He clung to
the tail, and as the huge reptile turned
toward him with an angry hiss he gave it
swinging motion by turning slowly. Grad
ually he increased his speed, turning faster
wheel, the spokes of which were the BODY
Of the python. So rapid was the motion
that the snakes body was perfectly
straight, and it was evident that as long as
the motion could be kept up the man was
safe, but il the monster could reach him he
would in moment be crushed in the hor-
rible folds of the reptile.
The lookers-on had long since fed, the
natives had gone shrieking up the street
the Englishman alone standing by, but even
he did not know what to do, as it was i'm
possible to shoot the animal as it was flying
around; so he stood a few minutes aghast
at the curious position of the man.
1t soon became apparent that the charmer
knew what he was about Not far from the
house stood stout flagstaff, a foot and
half through, of solid teakwood, and toward
this he was gradually moving, whirling the
snake faster and faster. Now he was with
in twenty-five feet of it, and suddenly il
dawned on the few spectators what he was
about to do. This was to strike the head of
the reptile against the pole Nearer he
came, whirling faster aud faster, until the
reptile stood out like a whip lash, and then.
with quick step forward, he brought the
mead OF the reptile against the wood with a
crushing sound. He released his hold ana
the great reptile doubled up in convnl-
siye folds, digging up the earth and sending
clouds OF dust into the air, finally dropping Q
limp aud hfeless 70 the ground.
"A wondering crowd soon surrounded the
dead boa, the now brave natives expressing o
their opinions as 10 its size. One thing was
evident-that here was the @ghost.n The
big snake had in some way obtained en-
trance to the house, probably through the
noie IA the foundation, and had produced
the mysterious sounds heard by the men.
Fhe snake-charmers had. as is their general
custom, placed harmless cobra n the hole
and before they had time to San IT out it
had encountered the big boa, with the above
result,
QUEEN CoCSTY, Hiss, has had perfect
fruit crop for sixteen consecutive years.