Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-04-07
IN THE COILS OF A SNAKE.
Miss Mamie Higgs, the seventeen.

IN THE COILS OF A SNAKE.
Miss Mamie Higgs, the seventeen.
year.old daughter of John Higgs, q
wood chopper, living near Fishkill, N
Y, had terrible experience on Wed.
nesday. She was bitten by large ad
der, which coiled about her left ankle
She will probably recover.
Mrs. Higgs, the mother, has always
feared snakes, but she proved herself s
heroine by seizing the reptile which
coiled about her daughters leg and try
ing to pull it of.
Miss Mamie and her mothor stood al
the front gate at dusk on Wednesday
chatting with neighbor. Two or three
of the younger generation of the Higgs
family played about the yard. The
gate is q rickety picket affair, which
closes by means of chain and weight
Mamie had her right foot on the chain,
aud was swinging it back and forth.
The neighbor on the other side of the
fence said goodnight and went away.
Mrs. Higgs had turned to reprimand
one of the children, leaving Mamie at
the gate. Suddenly the young girl
screamed.
"Oh, mamma! I've got a snake on
me. Take it off! Take it of ~ AT the
same time Mamie rushed toward the
house.
"Mercy sakes alive! where is ?"
shrieked Mrs. Higgs, gathering her
skirts about her rushing to her daugh-
ter's assistance.
Before she could reach her the terri
fed girl, clutching her skirts with
both hands, turned and fled into the
street.
Then Mrs. Higgs saw what she had
not before had time to observe. An OBJ
ject something like thick whip thong
was dangling from beneath Mamie's
skirts. Only six inches of it was visi-
BILE, and as the half craZed girl fed di-
agonally across the street toward the
open gate of neighbours yard it flap
ped about her left shoe, coiliDg and un-
coiling like the tentacle of devil fish.
With each frightened lea, she took
the girl uttered scream. Close behind
came Mrs. Higgs, trvingin in vain to catch
her fleeing daughter From the near
by houses the neighbors came pouring
out like ants from nest.
Mamie had ru u through the gateof
"Bll" Booths yard and was turning
the corner of the house when her
mother caught her. Holding the girl
with one hand Mrs. Higgs reached her
daughters clothes with the other.
The reptile was gripped so tightly
about the girls leg that Mrs. Higgs
could not move it. The girl was
stamping and screaming and begging
the neighbors to take the snake of,
crying that it was killing her.
Finally she broke away from her
mother and started to run again. She
had taken only few steps when the
thick, ugly reptile loosed its coils and
fell to the ground. Before anybody
had time to kill it, the snake had
crawled away under the stoop of the
house.
Then Mamie fell to the ground in
sensible and was carried over to the
little brown house and put to bed. DR..
O'Reilly was sent for. Long before he
arrived the girls legs below the knee
had swollen to the size of stove pipes
and she was suffering terribly.
DR.. O'Reilly administered enough
whisky to have made an old topper
drunk, but it had no apparent effect on
the girl.
On her left leg, below the knee, four
small punctures were found. They
were in pairs, which meant that the
snake had bitten her twice. They were
wounds which resembled the pricklings
of q hypodermic syringe. Lotions were
administered, and the swelling was
gradually reduced, although the girls
general condition did not seem to i'm
prove.
DR.. O'Reilly found on Thursday
morning that the right leg was still
badly swollen. He made a close ex-
animation and found that the girl had
been bitten worse, if possible, on the
right than on the left leg. There were
four bites along the calf of the leg, and
it was evident from the young woman's
condition that the poison had thorough
ly permeated her system.
The girl was much better on Satur-
day, but the flesh about the wounds
was purple and much swollen. She
suffered continually from spasms and
twitchings of the muscles, followed by
an ironlike rigor, lasting several min
utes at time. 1t is thought she will
recover.