The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-07-31
m KEEP OUT SNAKES.
orACE WHERE REPTILES ARE
. mao NUMEROUS FOR COMFORT.
.,,+ion Rendered Necessary in the
Homes Along the Rio Grande.
Snakes Until You Are
Prom the Philadelphia Times.

pr,m the Philadelphia Times.
j D, Mason, well known travelling
man who has just returned from bust
noss trip trough southwestern Texas,
,iras the following interesting account
# q peculiar phase of life in that part of
the world:
uTbere is little strip of country"
,o;d Mason, sin Texas down by the Rio
c,ande where snakes are literally too
numerous to mention. They are really
&c thick as the proverbial dead leaves of
valombrosa, and the most abstemious
man in existence sees enough snakes in
ninnte to knock him silly. 1 have
friend. Jim Hughes by name, living down
IN that region who owns cattle ranch
consisting of 1900 acres of land, and
really and truly the trail of the serpent
was over them all. Jim has wife who
e tbe prettiest little woman west of the
Mississippi. ard two of the dearest little
Girls in the whole world, 1 reckon, and
| for long time Jim was put to it to know
how to protect his family from the
snakes. He said that it used to be so
that during the first warm days of early
spring. when the snakes were just awak-
eping from their tOrpor, he and his
ranchmen, cowboys, etc., would just
have to leave the cattle to their fate and
form cordau about the house, to keep
i the reptiles out. Nowadays, though,
Z such constant precaution is not neceSsa-
y ~, as he has hit upon device to circuln-
vent the snakes to a certain extent. He
managed to do this by fencing in the
house yard with closely woven wire net
e ting
To begin with, however, he had to dig
4 ditch all around the place to the depth
of about four feet and plant cedar posts,
Ii letting them stand about six feet above
the level of the ground. Then on these
posts he stretched ten foot wire netting
and threw the dirt back in the ditch. By
this means, you see, he had four feet of
netting underground, which prevented
the snakes burrOwing beneath and CON-
ing into the yard, and a six foot fence
above, which only the more adventurous
reptiles try to surmount. Now and then
little snake manage to wriggle through
the meshes of the wire and get into the
gard, but the big fellows are practically
circumvented. Every morning, though,
man goes all over the yard on tour Of
Inspection, killing all the small snakes
hat may have crept in, before Mrs.
Hughes or the little girls will venture
but Of the house. 1t is not very pleas
int prospect either, although you are
eated in the house in comparatively Sc
purity, to see the reptiles writing and
quirming in the sun, now and then but
ing against the fence or clinging to the
FTe in hideous, coiling festOons About
NO miles away from the place is little
Og or mash, whence streamlet makes
pto the river, and here the reptiles
iced. Hughes inyeigled me into going
Per one night to the neighboThood of
bog, and l shall never forgetthe hor
|Ole noises that emanated therefrom.
pc snakes were evidently fighting
nOng themselves, and the bog seemed
De alive with them. Deliver me from
other experience like the one that
gnt, and from a home in Texas down
The Rio Grande. Hughes thinks it is
garden spot of the universe, however,
says that when he succeeds in get
that marsh properly drained the
ASeS will disappear. !"
They Fooled the Old Man.