Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-04-03
CAMPFIRE STORIES.
THREE SNAKE STORIES.



CoiIer-Bitten by Snake.
Captain George Mckay tells story in
which war and snakes are mingled in a
fashion which is interesting. His regi-
ment, the Seventh Ohio, while in West
Virginia in the late disagreement, be-
came entangled with an entire brigade
of the Confederate forces and hard
fight OF several hours duration ensued,
with chances against the Union regi-
ment, outnumbered as it was, eight TO
one. Toward night Captain Mckay got
away with twenty of his men and made
tracks up branch of the Kanawha
river. They moved cautiously along
one bank while the opposing forces
were following them on the opposite
side of the river and silently gathering
about them on all sides. The beleagur-
ed Unionists finally reached a sheltered
spot in the side of hill where cave
like hollow afforded them refuge.
They dropped YEARLY upon the ground
to rest, but they slept little that night.
One Of them, after few minutes quiet,
exclaimed, in low voice:
1--WE must have got into some old
woman's cucumber patch. Can't you
smell emp"
Several of the men noticed the pecu-
liar smell, and one experienced hunter,
after shifting about, exclaimed:
''Lie still, every man Of you. II you
make move you're a goner. Them's
gnakes-rattlers, too"
OF al fIno INN lei
of every son OF Adam to fight the rep
tiles and lay silently through the night,
while the reptiles crawled over and
about them, until morning dawned at
last. The sensation Of a man lying on
his back and allowing the Shiny
creatures to crawl over his face and
body, while every now and then the
footballs of squads OF the hostile army
could be heard moving about the river
bank, can scarcely be imagined. Toward
daylight the hunter who had first dis
covered the presence Of the reptiles
contrived in some manner to entice
them to the mouth OF the cave and gave
the doubly imprisoned twenty-one men
q chance TO move their joints. They
escaped from their dangerous position,
and most of them lived to tell the tale.
Squire Bauder supplements this tale
with another. He says that during a
hot fight in the war he was sent by his
Captain to look for a man who had
Jagged out of the line, and found him
comfortably ensconced behind rock.
The laggard was drunk, and a rattle
snakes head was within an inch of his
hand. Bauder called him away, and
threw a stone at the snake, missing It,.
The reptile Immediately coiled itself up
and prepared to strike. Bauder threw
another stone, cricket fashion, and
struck his snakeship in the neck. The
animal darted at him and struck his leg,
but failed to insert its fangs in the flesh,
and dropped dead.
A Clevelander, recently returned from
Nebraska, says he was removing the
yoke from a pair of oxen, on the sand
hills just south Of Boolxwalter's claim,
when big rattlesnal1e stung him in the
calf Of his leg. The young man heard the
rattle and was looking for the snake when
it sprung at him, and consequently
caught 1t by the body about as soon
as he felt the bite. He brought the
makes head down upon one Of the
horns Of the nearest OK, killing it, and
then started on a run for the chicken
coop. Hastily binding a newly killed
fowl upon his leg to draw the poison, he
jumped upon the back Of a wild broncho
and rode three miles to town, where q
quart OF whisky was secured and the
narrator OF the story went on his first
drunk. His leg by this time had swell
len to twice its normal size. He went
to hotel, dragged himself to a room
and swallowed whisky until he did not
know whether he stood on his head or
his feet. His last recollection is fruit
less search for the bottle, which stood
on table beside him. When he awoke
the swelling had begun to subside, his
friends we're doing what they could for
him and in few days he was as good as