The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-15
THREE SNAKE STORIES.
Caressed by Rattlers-Bowling Down
Coiler-Bitten by Snake.

Caressed by Rattlers-Bowling Down
COiler-Bitten by Snake.
Capt. George Mckay tells a story in
| which war and snakes are mingled in a
fashion which is interesting, says the Cleve-
land Fain Dealer. His regiment the
Seventh Ohio, while in West Virginia, in
| the late disagreement, became entangled
| with an entire brigade of the confederate
forces, and a hard fight of several hours
duration ensued, with chances against the
union regiment, outnumbered, as it was, s to
| l. Toward night Capt. 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 ali sides. The be-
leaguered unionists finally reached a Shelf
cred spot in the side of hill where a cave
like hollow afforded them a 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:
"We must have got into some old woman's
cucumber patch. Can't you smell 'em"
Several of the men noticed the peculiar
smell, and one experienced hand, after
shifting about, exclaimed:
''Lie still, every man of you. If you
make d lnOVS you're ROQ6F. 1Q0fuS
snakes-rattlers, too"
The men resisted the supreme impulse of
| every son of Adam to fight these reptiles,
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 tne foot
falls 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 discovered the
presence of the reptiles contrived In some
manner to entice them to the mouth of the
cave, and gave the doubly imprisoned
twenty-cne men chance to move their
joints. They escaped from their dangerous
position, aud 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 lagge1 out of the line,
and found him comfortably ensconced be-
hind a rock. The laggard was drunk, and
rattlesnake's head was within an inch of his
hand. Baudcr called him away, and threw
a stone at the snake, missing it. The rep
tile Immediately coiled itself up and pre-
pared to strike. Bauder threw another
stone, cricket fashion, and struck his snake
ship in the neck The animal darted at
4AiAh SOl uSh his 1SEs Oub W AllS5LU
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 sandhills just
south of Bookwaters claim, when a big
rattiesnake stung him in the calf of his Leg.
The young man heard the rattle and was
! looking for the snake when it sprang at
him, and consequently caught it by the
| body about as soon as he felt the bite He
brought the snakes head down upon one of
the horns of the nearest OK, killing it, and
then started on run for the chicken coop.
Hastily binding anewly-killed fowl upon his
leg to draw the poison, he jumped upon the
back Of wild bronco and rode three miles
to town, where quart of whisky was
secured, and the narrator of the story went
on his first drunk. His leg by this time had
swollen to twice it's 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 recc llection is of a fruitless search
for the bottle, which stood on a table beside
him. When he awoke the swelling had
begun to subside, his friends were doing
what they could for him, and in few days
he was as good as new.