Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1896-03-13

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TRUE SNAKE STORIES.
A Lady Tells OF the Reptiles She Saw
Ohio Fifty Years Ago.


Ohio Fifty Years Ago.
There were many more snakes, v,
omous ones. too, in southern Ohio
years ago than there are today.
member once the men who were
work upon our farm called us to
field to see what they had found. III
had moved a large rock, and undernei
1t was q snakes nest. II was ont
hole with eight eggs in it, but thu
were M large rs small hen eggs. with
she'll like the lining Of an ordinary Q,
shell, only thicker. In every one of tn
was packed, tightly coiled. u snake FIR
six to eight inches long and rs thick
rye straw. They never found the
snake
Once our men were moving agr,
log that lay in field. A little boy W
lived with us went TO watch them.
the log rolled over. tremendous cope
head snake leaped out from IL and
the boy. The mon killed the snake, al
we did everything we knew to save Il
poor lad, but in u very short time
body was covered with spots like Il
spots upon the snake The side that WI
bitten swelled terribly. The boy did II,
die then. but he never was we'll afte
ward He suffered at first from fright
full attacks Of nightmare. which SCENE
IN he grew to manhood to develop int
epilepsy, He died when he was 81.
An hour after the boy was bitten til
men found in tho same spot anothe
huge copperhead snake, the mate to tn
ono they had already killed.
Near the side door of our house wa
an old apple tree, and birds Ind bull
their nests in decaying limb. One da,
heard II terrible screeching and nois,
out there, and went to see what wa,
the matter. At the root Of the tree lay
snake. 1t had captured two birds, Ont
was in its mouth. The other. strangel.
enough, it held fast coiled in the end OF
its tail. Az came on the scene IL start
cd to run, but IL could not run very fal
with bird at each end, and l got a
stick and quickly killed it. The birds
were both dead. Ii has always been a
mystery to me how that snake. which
was about 8id feet long, got down tho
tree with those two birds.
One OF our tenants upa box on the
end of long pole for the martin birds
to como and make their nests in. The
pole was 20 feet high. Tho box was soon
inhabited. One day tho man beard a
noise at the box. He went out and found
the birds in great distress. ohirruping and
futtering. At length he saw a snakes
head peering ont OF the martin box. He
went into tho house, got his gun. took
aim at the head and pulled the trigger.
Bang He did not see anything for q
moment Then tho body Of huge
black snake slowly unrolled outside the
box and fell to the ground. 1t was five
feet long.
Ono day when / was in the cellar
saw snake running into n hole In tho
wall caught it by the tail, as knew
the hole was not large enough for the
creature to turn and bite me. wound
the tail around my fingers and waited.
The snake struggled fiercely, but held
on to its tail till felt 1t getting weak
and limp. Then jerked it out of the
hole and beat II to death.
We had fine, noisy flock Of guineas
one summer. and the hens all laid their
eggs IN one nest. Soon tho eggs began
to be stolen out every day. We could not
account for 1t. But one morning when
the farm men were clearing away an old
stump about a mile and half from tho
guinea nest, under tho stump they found
black snake, which they Immediately
killed. They noticed it looked very fat
indeed. 10 they cut II open. Then they
found where the guinea eggs had gone.
The black snake had quite number Of
them in its insides.
Once our men found one Of those
horrible snake dens In which these rep
tiles house themselves together In win
ter. The men were repairing the road.
and in the course Of their work took out
by tho roots decayed tree stump. I'm
derneath 1t they found an awful nest Of
snakes. They began killing the creatures
as rapidly az they could, but the odor Of
the snakes was so horrible that some Of
the men had to be carried away from
tho spot. MRS. j. w. ARcHARD.