Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-11-30
PROGRESS OF GRUBB BoTTs

roads.
Grub stayed at home and made plans
for the great future. OF course you re-
member Grub Bolts. He is the son fthe
Hon. Dink Bolts, whose claims for po-
litical preferment were ignored by the
Cleveland administration. Tired of
hearing his father thrash over old po-
litical straw, Grub exchanged the hills
OF Lumpkin for the valleys of Sawdust,
and is now living in the ways of indus
try and usefulness.
Squire Scruggs, with whom he boards,
says he is the outworkingest boy that
ever came to Sawdust; that he gets up
before daylight and does not so to bed
till after dark that he is hustling all
the time; that he can split more rails,
rive more boards, break more colts and
calves than any boy beknownst to that
neck of the woods.
Grub has continued of late in the line
previously marked out in the Suns cor
respondence. He has everything ar
ranged for great sugar-cane crop next
year on his four-acre farm down byBog
gy creek. He has got a syndicate about
organized to control the big pile of saw
dust from which the town is named /.
There is more than enough of this saw
dust to save all the fruit to be grown in
Georgia next year, if it is only prop.
erlv burned between the furrows. If
the people will buy it at the price Grub
places upon il, he and his associates will
all get rich.
But young Bolts is not content to
await the riches that the slow process
of the seasons may bring. He rushes
on to new methods producing wealth.
If he were able to get to New York he
would break Wall street in week. AS
he is restricted to these parts, he IS
simply pulling success out of the
creek, plucking bright honor from the
pale-face moon, snatching prosperity
from every quarter.
Let him tell the story of his latest ex-
hibition of horse sense
stFish stories are great. Snake stories
are greater. But I'll tell you how l
combined both in an experience of fact
in way to fairly dazzle the yarns you
have seen in print.
''We wele fishing up on Kiokee
creek. Me and Pod Dismukes son and
Potsdam Sans cousin and Newt
Twitty's nephew and another boy who
is some kin to Hoke Smith. The
weather was little cold for fishing.
The ground was muddy. The cane
brakes cut our fingers. The logs that
we wanted to sit on were all wet, and
the fish would not bite much.
"We started by sun up and at 2
o'clock we had only caught few red
bellies and Yarmouth perch. | told
the boys this wouldn't do, and that we
must somehow change our luck: L re-
membered a hole way up above PEARS
Mill where fellow got snake bit while
in swimming. was certain we could
catch snakes there, if nothing else. We
lit out for that hole. When we got
there we saw lot of water moccaslns
swimming around on the top OF the
water. A lot more were swimming
around under the water. Still more
we're crawling on the bottom.
81 told all hands to begin fishing for
snakes and I would stand for the result.
Pretty soon We saw that the snakes
wouldn't bite our bait. Then we de-
cided TO bait our hooks with our small
fish. The snakes began to bite these in
| a iiffy. Soon we used up all our fish,
but we had caught dozen snakes.
.Then we divided our crowd into
two parties, some fishing for minnows
and other small fish, the others using
these to fish for snakes. Well, sir,
would you believe it. we caught ninety
odd snakes. When they would swal-
low the bait we would give sudden
Jerk and hook them. Then we would
haul them out Then We would cut
| them of. Then we would rebait the
hooks and catch 'em again. mean,
catch others. Of course, we used old
gloves to keep the snake poison from
getting ali on us.
'.AIaybe you think those snakes are
no use, except to keep them out of the
way so they can't bite boys who go in
swimming. More than that, I have
skinned the last one of those ninety
| odd snakes, and lam going to sell them
to factories that will make things out
of them. Why, nothing is nicer to give
q lady or sell man than snake skin
card case, or snake-skin pocketbook
or snake-skin triuket of any sort.
"Rattlesnakes' skins have generally
been used for these things; but there is
no reason why water moccasins' skins
should not do as we'll. When nicely
polished up they will look just as pret-
ty They will wear as well. They
Won't be hurt by water either, because
water moccasins are used to the water.
Altogether. believe they will last long.
er and 60 further than fattIesnakes'
aTben. too, I have another idea.
They can be pieced together and made
into a macintosh or overcoat. Ihls
would be absolutely waterproof, and
| would be great for wear. 1t would be
great. also, as fishing coat. Suppose
man having on such coat should
fall into the creek. Getting, wet
wouldn't hurt the coat bit. And the
sewed-together snakes skins would
wiggle worse than live snakes, and
would never let him drown While q
water moccasin can swim.
In few days, as soon as the SKINS
are well dried and I have time to put
them in shape, / am going to take them
to Atlanta or Augusta and sell them TO
the factories. Ne and Pod Disnuke's
son and Potsdam sam's cousin and
Newt Twitty's nephew and the other
boy who is some kin to Hoke Smith
expect to make snug little pile out o1
l.f- IL