Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-07-21
SNAKES OF BOYHOOD.
GONE EXTINCT REPTILIANS THAT
HAD MARVELLOUS ATTRIBUTED

The Terrible Blue Racer aud the Fhou-
saads Of Victims He Didnt oet-Ths
Hoop Snake That AY Kaew Of. but Few
Ever eaw-Peculiarities Of Glass snakss.
The blue racer was an ophidian CAL
culated to cause the hair Of the mall
boy to stand on end like the quilts Of the
fretful porcupine. Nothing could exceed
the fiendish malignity of this snake,
whose powers of locomotion were in
credibly swift and whose appetite for
boy was forever ON edge. And it was
only by relieving himself Of all impede
menta, such as the bucket containing
his small store Of berries or his fishing
tackle and can of bait, that boy wa
able to avoid capture. It was the cur
rent belief that when the blue racer
came up with his prey he swiftly in
folded the unlucky wight in his deadly
coils, crushed the life out of him and
then devoured him at his leisure. So far
az history goes and the mortuary records
show no boy was ever cut of in the
bloom Of his youth by blue racer, but
disasters of this kind were only avoided
by the remarkable fleetness of foot dis
played on such occasions.
His terror gave him supernatural
strength and added wings to his feet,
and the blue racer was incontinently
left in the shade. The blue racer, &C
cording to cloud of youthful witnesses
who have testified thereto, was a snake
ranging from IL to 16 feet long, the av-
erage length being about Is feet. Its
aspect was threatening in the extreme,
and its eyes cleaned with balefu1 and
hungry light. AS it reared its ugly head
four or five feet above the surface in
search of the trembling youngsters his
underside was seen to be of bright blue
color, and from this fact and his swift
movements he received his apt and dis
tinguishing name. Blue racers are as
scarce as hens teeth now. So
But the most deadly, the most grew
some and the most appalling snake
knewn to boyhood was the fearful
hoop snake, now happily extinct
This scourge of the forest was the bette
noire of the urchin, who was continual
~ in mortal terror of encountering it AZ
he wandered through the pleasant woods
or angled in the waters of his favorite
stream. The hoop snake roamed the
darksome shades of the forest like an
avenging Nemesis, and, like the blue
racer, was always on the lookout for
boys The hoop snake differed uniquely
from all other ophidia. When in mo-
ton, it was the habit of this snake to
insert the end of its tail in its mouth,
and, bending its body into q perfect cir
Gle, it would roll silently and with in
credible swiftness through the woods
The tail terminated in horny spike,
harder than steel, in which was conceal
ed sting of the most venomous de-
scriptiop, and woe betide the object
that came within striking distance of
this fearful weapon. The virus in the
tail was far more toxic than the venom
of the rattlesnake or the tooth of the
copperhead and was synonymous with
instant death.
d. Fortunately no boy was ever stung
by one Of these snakes. His caution, his
prudence and proverbial good luck al
ways enabled him to circumvent the
Vaccinations of the enemy, but it re-
quired ceaseless vigilance on his part.
Indeed, but few boys eyer saw one of
these reptiles, although we were well
aware of their existence. But at rare
intervals some youth favored with ex-
ceptional eyesight and a vivid imagina-
ton would get glimpse Of . hoop
snake rolling its way along a distant
path.
Another curious snake that used to
interest youthful students of herpetol-
ogy was the glass snake. As far as
its habits were known, the glass snake
seemed to exist for the sole purpose of
affording fun for the boys, who, when
they encountered one of them, hit it
across the back with a stick, whereup-
on his snakeship broke into q thousand
pieces, more or less, according to the
mathematical proficiency of the boy,
and his brittle anatomy few in all di-
rections. Yet this singular proceeding,
while It interested the youthful expert
mentors greatly, never disconnected
the snake, or only temporarily, for as
soon as left to itself the parts all united
and the snake was whole as before.
This invariably happened, but although
boys have watched for hours to see the
mysterious process the reptile never
"got together" until they had departed
Glass snakes are not nearly so common
now, nor are they so brittle as they
used to be.
One fact in serpent history, however,
remains the same in spite Of the dicta of
scientists, as any boy Of today can tell.
The tail of a snake will wiggle after it
is killed until the sun goes down. There
isn't a boy in the whole country but
knows this to be rock ribbed fact in
natural history. Learned men tell us
that this notion, "a they please to call
it, is a relic Of far distant time when
our ancestors worshiped the sun, which
at one time was depicted with serpent
attributes. -Chicago Tribune.
Tho Telescope Of the Future.