The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-10
ENVIRONED BY SNAKES.
A DTummcT'S Experience Of a Terrible
Night in Texas.


A Tree to Which He Chung for Bare
Life Was Almost Covered With Ven
omous Snakes, While the Settling
Waters That Surrounded 1t Were
Alive With Alligators.
From the Philadelphia Times.
''Talk of snakes" said the drummer
from Boston, as the crowd received the
cheerful information that the train was
an hour late, and settled down to pass
the time as best it might, II spent a night
once surrounded by not dozens of them,
but hundreds. Real snakes, too; none of
those produced by good spirits, either. 1t
was Just seven years ago this fall that
business for my firm led my wanderings
down TO Sabine Pass, a little town in
Texas, on the gulf coast. ! was tired out
by the journey down the river on an old,
slow steamer, struggling with patched
up paddle and and Anticipated engine, so
that turned in early 1t must have been
somewhere in the neighborhood of mid
night that was wakened by dull, boom
ing sound, afar off, and trembling of the
earth.
81 sprang from the bed and rushed to
the window, and by the light of the
moon, a week-eyed, sickly Diana as ever
fought the Clouds could make out what
seemed to be solid wall of water ad-
vancing from the sea. 1t was on the town
before the helpless people could run for
their lives, and house after house
shrank into nothingness as a lump of
sugar might, In an instant more ] was
out in the water battling the murBy
wave, and ducking from the timbers
| hurled high in the air as the angry tide
| seized them in it's cruel play. | had al
ways supposed myself to be fair swim
mer, but the odds ware too fearfully
| against me for me to be able to long sus-
| tain myself in the seething, eddying food
| | felt my strength going from me, my
head was giddy with the force of the
vortex and | flung out my hand in an at
| tempt to steady myself, an0 as | did so
chicken coop ioated past with dripping
| rooster standing on top shrieking dis
mally. | caught the structure and held
TO it like grim death, and by .dint of
| struggling with it succeeded in getting up
beside the discOnsOlate lord of the poultry
| yard.
MY weight sank the coop to within an
| inch or two of the water, but even this
| precarious perch was better than moth
| ing. We then joined in the mad race in
which dead CATTLE branches of trees and
| trees themselves, with every now and
| then human body with a set white face
| staring up at the pitiless sky, went dane
| ing on as if to a DEVILS tune. Every now
and then some one Of these objects would
collide with the ROSTERS and my frail
| craft and we would go under, but the
next moment we would emerge again and
| would reach out and seize my less for
tuuate companion on this strange
voyage and fetch MIN up again
to his perch by my side Once
as | mounted my coop after plunge of
this sort, long black muzzle shot up
from the water close by and a vicious
snap told me that in addition TO the
CHASTITY objects on top of the waters
there were even more dreadful creatures
below in the shape of alligators, and
shuddered to think of what would be-
come of the bodies that a few hours be-
fore were living, joyous human beings.
Again saw the corpse of a baby of about
a year old float by, one chubby hand still
clutching rag doll, whose gay dress of
red calico formed a cruel contrast to the
wax-whlte fingers that held it.
"All at once the coop came in violent
contact with large water-oak tree that
stood still upwright before the food,
with its branches thrown up against the
sky as if in mute protest of the sights it
looked upon AS the coop struck this
body | was thrown off, and when would
have seized the craft again, it was
whirled out of my reach by the mad rush
of the tide, and / was again thrown
against the tree, but this time ! caught at
the end of one of the lower branches de-
pending about a foot from the water, and
Selling this drew myself out of the cur
rent, and reaching up found another still
larger bOugh near me, and so from one to
another / climbed as well as my soaking
garments would allow, though fortu-
nately these were of the lightest possible
character.
"The moon now went out behind the
gath ering clouds and left the scene in
profound darkness, and l could only i'm
imagine the horrors about me, and so
when presently my hand touched some
thing clammy and cold l could not identi-
fly its nature, but when it moved along
the branch in a slow sinuous movement
| guessed at once the fearful character of
the creature occupying that tree with me.
But had no time to do more than recoil
from this horror in the dark when ] felt
another drop from somewhere over my
head and land on my bare neck. reached
up and caught the long shape by the tail
and with jerk flung it out into the wa
ter, and as | did so / was sensible of q
third crawling on the other arm, by
which ! still held TO the tree. ! shudder-
ed with real terror, Tor L knew TINS low
country was infested with the most
venOmous varieties of the rattlesnake
and the big green water moccasin, but
there were only the two courses open to
me-to keep perfectly passive under the
reptiles passage over my body and not to
provoke them 10 an attack, when my
fate would be sealed, or TO face death at
once by dropping of the tree into the
black flood swirling beneath
st ysegnlvpd n tale the first chance and
steeled myself to endure the touch Of the
hideous creatures, that, attracted by the
warmth of my body, gathered about me.
One sought refuge in the open shirt at
my throat and coiled himself about my