Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1895-07-05
TEXAS LIFE.
How 1t Looks to Welt known Com~
=. af,Ix. 49,.

| How 1t Looks to n Well Known Conn
mercial Traveller.
| J. D. Mason, wel-known travelling
| man, who has just returned from
| business trip through southwest Texas.
| gives the following interesting account
| of a peculiar phase OF life in that part
| Of the world:
There is a little strip of country, -.'
| said Mason, .in Texas, down by the Rio
Grande, where snakes are too numerous
to mention. They are really as thick
as the proverbial dead leaves Of Valan
brosa, and the most absteniolls man In
existence sees enough snakes in min
ute to knock him silly. I have friend.
Jim Hugh by name, living down in that
region who owns cattle ranch consist
ing of 1,500 acres Of land, and really
and truly the trail Of the serpent was
over them all. Jim has a wife who ia
the prettiest little woman west OF the
Mississippi, and two Of the dearest little
girls in the whole world, reckon, ana
for long time Jim was put to 1t to
know how to protect his family from
the snakes. He said that it used to
| be SO that during thsaaGst warm days
Of early spring, when tha&nalses were
just awakening from their torpor, hs
ana his ranehmen, cowboys, etc, would
just leave the cattle to their fate and
form a Gordon about the house TO keep
the reptiles out. Nowadays, though.
such constant precaution is not neees~
sary, as he has hit upon a device to
| cifcumvent the snakes to a certain ex-
tent. He managed to do this by fencing
the house yard with closely-Woven wira
netting. To begin with, however, he
mad to dig q ditch all around the place
10 the depth of about four feet and
plant cedar posts, 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 ia the ditch. BY this
means, YOU see. he had four feet OF net
ting underground, which prevented the
snakes burrowing beneath and coming
into the yard, and a six-foot fence
above, which only the more aiventar-
Gus reptiles try to surmount. Now ANA
then little snake will manage to
wriggle through the meshes of the wire
and get into the yard, but the big fe.s
lows are practically cireumventea
Every morning, though, a man goes all
over the yard on tour Of inspection.
killing all the small snakes that May
have crept in before Mrs. Hughes OF
the little girls venture out of the honss.
It is not a very pleasant prospecs,
either, although you are seated in the
house in comparative security, to look
over the fence and see the reptiles
writhing and squirming in the sun.
now and then butting against the fence
or clinging to the wire in hidaous; coil
ing festoons. About two miles away
from the piaceSis little bog or marsh,
!, VII snee little stream makes into
-SiilaEer, and here the reptiles breed
Hughes inyeigled me into going over
one night>io the neighborhood of this
bog. and 4 shall never Ss;S fSass;get the hors
ribie noises that cdce, dear efefroln
The snakes were es nj eighting
among themselves, and the S J. !. 9 ssss-- suDth
to be alive with them. Deliver ma !. 4. I,
another experience like the one Of that
night, and from a home in Texas down
by the Rio Grande. Hughes thinks il
is the garden spot of the universe, how
ever, and says that when he succeeds
in getting that marsh properly drained
the snakes will disappear