The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-12
A RATHER IN A RUNAWAY.
Got Mixed Up in the Hind Wheel and
Slashed Through the Air.
From the New York Sun

Jim Savage of Larue is not afraid of
snakes when they keep their places on
the ground, but he draws the line at rat
tiers which take extraordinary means of
getting at him when he is riding along
the road in a buggy. jim was in Newark
last night, and told a strange story about
a snake which he met between Char
lottesburg and Butler one day last week.
He said:
Il was driving down the road with the
old man alongside in d side-bar buggy,
with team of colts, when l see a big gel
low and black RATHER sliding down the
hillside, where they have been quarrying
granite TO build the dam. 1t was plain to
me that the snake was going to cross the
road II is pretty dry weather up there,
and all of the snakes are getting down to
water fast as they can. Now there is a
little superstition that comes into the
story right here. / was reared in Mis-
souri,, and my mother always had an idea
that it was bad luck if a snake crossed
the road in front of a person. A snake
crossed the road in front of her one day
and she died within month, 1t made
an impression on me, and / have always
tried to get ahead of every snake since
then.
"When l see this RATHER sliding down
the rocks, hit the colts a lick with the
whip, and they shivered and tried to
stop. They saw or smelt that snake, and
showed their terror. hit them another
cut, and at the same time the snake shot
out from the blackberry bushes into the
road The colts SHE'D and jumped, and
the snake came on. had my eyes on him
and was doing my best to hold the colts,
but they were running away down the
mountain now and my hands were full. In
less time than you could wink that snake
was mixed up in the hind wheel, and as he
was slashed through the air his head or
tail, don't know which, caught me
Swipe on the back of the neck leaned over
to the left to get out of his way, bnt every
time that wheel turned it seemed as if he
was within an inch of my face and the
horses were running away. 1t seemed as
if he spun around in. that wheel a dozen
times and me tugging at the reins and
wishing / had a brake.
every time the wheel turned I saw a
CLEAN of yellow and black and felt the
air whistle by my ear, and the horses
were going down the mountain helly-te-
boot and me doing my utmost best to hold
'em and wishing had a Westinghouse
air brake on the buggy. Once in my anx-
iety to hold the colts I Strengthened up
and got a crack behind the ear, but |
could not tell whether it was the head or
were young colts that 1 was trying, and
they wern't used to snakes.
81 knew that something had got to hap
pen; either we was going to have
smash-up or the snake was going TO get
wore out, and just as we got to the bridge
across the river heard something snap.
1t was the snake. In whipping around he
got fast in one of the trestles of the bridge
and broke in half. When we struck the
straight stretch below the bridge I got
the horses under control, and then went
back and looked for the snake l found
half of him on the bridge and the other
half down on the bank under it. l put
the two halves together and measured
them with a two-foot rule. They meas
ured six feet and two inches, but, then,
| allowed foot for stretching in slapping
around in the wheel
"When we got down to Fred Casterlin s
hotel in Butler the old man found thir-
teen rattles on the seat of the buggy.
got him to examine my neck, and he didn't
find scratch, but as he was turning
away he noticed something sticking to
my coat collar and pulled it off. 1t was
one of the fangs OF the RATHER and it was
three-quarters of an inch long. / missed
getting it in the neck by half an inch"