The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-08-06
"cy" s,.sapers and his Snakes.

! to portray we nome life and sur
rounding oE Soy" Summers, the
famous snabM hunter of the ALLIE
ghanies. Itersons unacquainted
with this secSibn of the country read
ing the storybsbove referred to would
be led to tllinlk that civilization had
run againgtcl snag when it struck
the foot ! us of the Allegheny
mountains.
The sSsrY concerning "Cy'' has
brought forth another from a cor
Respondent of the SIM residing in
Bluefeld{ Va, and which we
reprint. blow
ssU sual are ready to drop
the iis2ts iii ~ VI snskes after read
ing the first story, there being some
thing chilly in the subject, and yet
have perused with great interest
your correspondents description of
his visit to the home of 'Cy' and
Ellen Jane Sommers, possibly, for
the following reasons.
"Twenty-fve years ago [ spent
! the spring and summer months in
the neighborhood described by your
correspondent. My father had large
focks Of sheep, which he grazed in
Teens Glade, near Swallow Falls,
and upon the dry glades trayersed
by the headwaters of Harrington
creek and tributary called Murley.
These were fine grazing lands and
extended almost to Hutton sSwitch
rode an old black Canadian horse,
which could detect the presence Of q
RATHER almost, if not quite, as ac-
curatelY as could old Dave Som
mers, or 'Cy' or Nellie
''In this range | boarded for q
time with a Mr.. Nelson Baker.
Mrs, Baker was, remember, an ex-
cellent cook, while the old gentleman
could tell interesting stories of
the pioneers of Allegany county,
Meshac Browning, the Casteels,
Lewis and others, not once forget
ting Davy Sommers, his son, the
doctor, now called 'Cy, and d'Nellie'
then, now known as Ellen Jane.
Young Jack Baker, several years nv
senior, and | constituted the limited
audience of Baker, senior, and many
pleasant hours were spent in swal-
lowing as boys alone can absorb the
marvellous narratives told by their
elders II the twilight of a spring
day, 1Jhe ar made fragrant by the
aroma Of homemade tobacco fired
in a Laurel root-pipe.
"Baker, or., found some pleas
ure in teasing me-a well grown
lad of fourteen-about some coun-
try lassies IN the neighborhood,
ard greatly to the amusement Of
Jack and myself, suggested that
| form matrimonial alliance with
the Sommers family by laying my
heart at the feet, bare feet at that
season, of Miss Nellie. He ar
gued that as | well knew the State
then paid premium of 81 each on
the scalps of hawks and foxes and
that there was a prospect of law
being passed by the next Legisla-
ture giving like bounty on the
skins of rattlesnakes. By his
ludicrous eloguence he showed con-
clusively how | might acquire
wealth, be raised aboYe the nee
essity of having to herd sheep for
my father, while an active wife
could earn $50 a day killing snakes
provided the snake law went into
effect.
"Returning to dinner after the
usual hour one day was placed at
the table opposite well-built
flaxen-haired girl who appeared to
be fifteen years of age. Mr. Baker
Sr., introduced me to "Miss Nellie
Summers, and Immediately fol-
lowed up the introduction thus:
"The Doctor has not been snake
hunting this spring, has he Nellie:
Without lifting her ewes from her
plate Nellie was intent on what
was before herr )she eplied with a
shake of her head, rno; the Doc
tor, he halnt bin snake hunting,
These were the only words we ever
heard uttered by Ellen Jane, the
champion.
cold Dave Sommers, the father,
was familiar figure on the streets
of Oakland on election days soon
after the late unpleasantness. A
famous Democrat from the tenth
legion of Virginia, surrounding, as
he often did on such occasions, a
liberal share of mountain dew, he
would proceed with great earnest
ness and many tears to assure the
public from the rostrum, that
"whenever they heard of the death
of old Dave Sommers they might
know that another good old Demo
crat had gone to his long home. "
n