Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-29

James II. Zepp and James C.
Meyers, of York county, Pennsyl-
vania, were doing a job of bark
peeling in that county. near the
Maryland line One Sunday after
noon they were walking along the
Melrose road on their way to the
woods, when they came upon track
III the road.
"Who do you s'pose can be going
through this country on u bicycle ?"
said Zepp.
somebody that must have muscle
and nerve" replied Meyers. He
must have n tire on his wheel like
lumber wagon, from the width of the
track it makes"
They measured the track, says the
New York Sun. 1t was six inches
wide. 1t followed the road for two
miles, and then turned off toward
the woods and ended. Then, for the
first time, it struck the two bark
peelers that the track had begun in
the road just as suddenly as it had
come to an end. They thought over
the puzzle for some time, and could
come to but one conclusion.
ats spook bicycle?" SAID ZepP
and Meyer agreed with him.
They went on with hurried steps,
and had gone mile or more, when
suddenly an enormous blacksnake
glided out of the woods into the road.
1t had cock pheasant in its mouth
dragging it along by the neck.
The snake kept the road and tray
eled so fast that it was out of sight
before Zepp and Meyers had recov-
cred from their astonlshment Then
they saw that il was not a bicycle
that had made the mysterious and
spooky track in the road. The wide
trail was made by the enormous
blacksnake.
1t was sometime before the two
bark peclcrs could make up their
minds whether to go on or return to
Melrose They finally armed them
selves with heavy clubs and went on
/ The great trail followed the road for
nearly "a mile, when it turned toward
the woods again and disappeared
| /epp and Meyers were now within
two miles of their camp, where they
/ had a gun, and they hurried on
! Within half mile of their camp the
big snake came into the road again
like a flash, This time it had a ra5-
! bit in its mouth.
"Lordr exclaimed Zepp. "He's
gulped that big pheasant and hain't
had enough yit"
This time the snake did not follow
along the road but crossed it, and it
made the eyes of the two bark peel
ers bulge when they saw the head OF
! the snake disappear in the woods on
one side OF the road some time before
its tail came out of the woods on the
other side.
They gave the snake time to get a
long distance in the woods, and then
they broke for the camp on the dou.
BILE quick. They found Andy Elite,
Of Cumberland, there. Andy is q
fox, coon ard 'possum hunter, and
when he heard about the big snake
he called his dog and started out to
see if he could not make a hit as q
snake hunter, too. Zepp and Meyers
took their gun and went along.
They took the trail where the
snake crossed the road. and Andy's
dog followed it as If it had been
fox scent. He led the men q mile
into the woods AMI came to noisy
stand. He barked and growled and
yelped so vociferously that Andy ex-
claimed:
That's the oncommonest snake,
reckon, that was ever freed around
hyer or you wouldn't find old Dan
cuttin' up like that. He's holed up
dozen big rattles to wunst. fore
now, an never made no setch fuss. p"
The hunters drew near to the dog,
and Immediately saw that he had
good cause to make u fuss. Two
snakes lay stretched out on the
rocks. They were black as coal or
they could easily have been mis-
taken for chestnut saplings lying on
the ground, so Iepp and Meyers de-
clare. Each snake seemed swollen
to an enormous size just below the
neck. Andy Elite shot both of them
through the head, and they thrashed
around so in the bushes that the dog
and the two bark peelers ran away.
The snakes finally gave up. and
Andy cut them open. In one was a
cock pheasant and in the other rab.
bit The snake that had swallowed
the rabbit also had mules shoe in
it's stomach. This led to the report,
when the news of the killing of the
two snakes was carried to Melrose.
that one Of the snakes had swal-
lowed a mule. This was found out
later 20 be untrue.
George Sampson identified the
shoe as one which he had tied around
the neck OF cat which he had
thrown into the mill-pond a couple
OF weeks before TO drown. The cat
had evidently been too much for the
weight of the shoe, had escaped from
the pond and run up against the
snake, which at once took it in, shoe
and all.
The smaller OF the two snakes
,,aaeurod fOurtaan foot tho ofbor