Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-08-12

"A way he went and the snapper
turned and advanced upon me from the
bow His fierce yellow eyes glared as
he came toward me, his enormous shell
supported on four wrinkled black legs,
fully half foot long As he advanced
he would draw his head way back into
the cavernous shell then shoot 1t out 10
the full extent of his fiabby neck, at the
same time swapping his jaws. He got
to the stern, and | had TO jump over
again to seek the bow. | was keeping
him moving and no mistake, for thus 1t
went. back and forth, back and forth
in that boat, the snapper getting mad
der and madder because he could not
manage to get hold on me, and my
wind getting shorter and shorter, until
| made up my mind that unless Jim
Sweeney got back with that feed bag
before long. or help came in some other
shape. I'd have to deliver myself to that
snapper and let him do his very worst.
As luck would have it, man who was
chopping wood on the shore heard my
yells, and he jumped into his boat and
pulled ont to see what was up. He had
his axe with him and when he saw
what allied me he struck that snappers 5
head off with one clip of the axe, and 1t
fell on the bottom of the boat with
heavy thump The eyes kept right on
glaring at me. and the jaws kept right
on swapping, as if the head was still
fast on the body.
Hes big fellow and sassy one,
said the man who rescued me. You
better keep away from that head, for
it'll clutch and chew, just as powerful
as it ever did for the next forty eight
hours.
THE man went way, and by and
by Col. Sweeney came rowing back. He
had the feed bag, but when he found
that the snappers head was off he was
grieved.
" OH said he, You ought to have
sat on him or kept him moving He'd a
been a great help to Charley VOORHEES,
this fall. Why, if l could have sent
him down there the'd have fattened him
up and before election came round he d
been in shape to make more than bar
rel of snapper stew, and no end to other
snapper fixings and he'd have put fight
ing blood in Charley's ward that would
have redounded to his credit and to the
glorifcation of genuine Philadelphia
politics.
. You don't mean to say, said l,
that it is this ferocious and formidable
beast that furnishes the material for
snapper soup and snapper stew and
snapper other things that the Phila-
delphia statesmen fill themselves with.
Sure said Col Jim, and we rowed
back to McAlli-ters, the Colonel sor-
rowfully, and keeping aloof from the
vengeful head of the decapitated snap
| per- We lifted the body of the snap
per ashore and carried the head off on
shovel. Placing it ON the sward, the
| disappointed statesman and |, at a safe
distance from the head, talked the ad
venture over. Presently the agonized
wall of dog rent the air. 1t was Nc
| Allisters dog 1t had came shifting al
| the snapper's head and the snapper
head had grabbed the dog by the lower
jaw and hung there like steel trap
We had to slit that head in halves be
fore the dog could be extracted from it
What a snapper that wasl said Co
Jim, mournfully. oh, why didn't
you sit on him or keep him moving
He would have helped Charley Voorhee:
out tremendous this fall!
''And now know why Philadelphia
politicians are so habitually and uni
| formly scrappy, full of fight and always
looking for it. and never giving up ever
after they are, metaphorically speaking
dead | know it now.