The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-08-08
1ARsc MS SNAKE KILLING sow.
Its Fat Cheeks Turned to Receive . Rat
tiers venomous rancx

tiers venomous Fang~
Moodna is low lying, unattractive
settlement, rather thickly inhabited.
on the Middletown branch of the
West Shore railroad, a little above
Cornwall and not more than a QUAR-
ter of mile below the secluded glen
called Paradise. The river that waters
Paradise flows darkly through Mood
ma. but it is limpid, sparkling stream
at the upper point and little better
than a ceSspool at the lower one
Paradise both on account of its re-
markable beauty and the difficulty of
getting 10 it is well named. Moodna
NAV be said to be the very antithesis
of Paradise There is no trail of the
serpent in Paradise, but Moodna is
rich in snakes, and would have a still
greater wealth of them were it not for
the untiring efforts OF Mr.. Sam Tar
sons SOW. She kills the reptiles and,
though her appetite at the swill tub is
unimpaired, she eats snakes with
great gusto, and leaves nothing but
the bones behind. For reasons known
only to herself, she picks off the flesh
of her prey, and eschews the osseous
portions. Moodna is proud of Tarson's
SOW, and the surrounding hamlets
would like to borrow her when snakes
multiply too rapidly; but she has all
the work she can attend to at home.
Of course, most of the snakes that
infest Moodna are comparatively
harmless, and the sturdy SOW fearlessly
casts her 400 pounds Of adipose matter
upon them, and regardless of their
bites, stamps and gnaws their lives
out. The adjacent mountain of Storm
King, however, has many reoesses
that are the homes of rattlesnakes.
With the first breath of spring they
emerge hungry, venomous and very
wicked, and larson, aided by old Zach
Archer, the professional snake catcher,
secured large one, and determined to
test the power of his pet as it had
never before been tried.
He led the sow into the barn, where
a soap box containing the snake had
been placed upon the floor. Then he
climbed upon a rafter, SO as to be out of
harms way. and, by pulling string,
raised door which he had made in the
box. Instantly the snake glided out,
and al once saw the SOW. It threw
itself into coil, its eyes glittered, it
Missed viciously, and it was ready and
eager for battle. The SOW also saw the
snake, as her subsequent actions indi-
Gated; but IL Is douotlul if the reptile
saw that she saw it." for no pig un-
dergoing the process of fattening in
the hog pen ever seemed more guile
less than did she as she trotted around
the barn, apparently in search of a
bad potato or rotten apple She was
narrowing the circle, however, and
each revolution brought her nearer
to her hereditary enemy.
At last she stopped moving, and
looked straight at the snake. Quick
as lightning flash the reptile struck
at her, but the SOW knew her busine ss.
With equal celebrity she turned her
head half around, and the poisonous
fangs sank into her left cheek. For a
moment the snake writhed around the
sow's snout, and she tried to seize it,
but it dropped to the ground un-
harmed, and, with amazing rapidity,
resumed its coil. The SOW seemed to be
chagrined She advanced a step, and
as the snake struck iercely at her for
the second time she obeyed the Script
ural mandate, and, having been smit-
ten on one cheek, she turned the other
to her assailant. She changed her tao
tics on this occasion, and did not at
tempt to bite the snake while it main
tanned its hold; but the instant if
dropped she bounced upon it, and
D grasping it by the neck she pinned its
ugly head to the ground and played a
tattoo upon its body with her feet.
She was not materially injured by the
bites she had received, for the venom
wasted itself in the thick layers of fat
that underlined her cheeks, and it
could not reach any vital part of her
anatomy. The snake was soon dead.
and Mr.. larson clambered down from
the rafter, hoping to secure the body
as trophy of his pets victory; but
the SOW was in no mood to brood inter
ference She felt that to the victor be-
longed the spoils, and her blood being
up, and little of it running from each
cheek, she drove her owner from the
barn. When he returned fifteen min
utes later she was in a more amicabls
frame of mind, and she had made a
skeleton of the snake as skillfully as
if the job had been done by a taxider-
mlst.-New York Sun.