The record-union., 1898-05-04
THE KING SNAKES PRowEss.
A Mountaineer Tells of His Habits
and Methods OF Attack.

and Methods Of Attack.
The distant murmur of the waterfall.
! the hum of the bees among th,, flow
ers. made me feel lazy, and. laying
aside my fishing rod l stretched my
self on the soft spring grass under a
weeping willow and watched the blue.
i cloud-specked sky. l had almost fall .
len asleep when 1 was aroused by a
voice inquiring, "Kotched emmy fish.
| mister?" Looking up I saw a typical
| mountaineer, and assured him I had
not Il say, mister. this here is a pow
! erful bad kentry for snakes. One bit
Jim Sloan's bay mare last night. an
week afore last another bit Sally Mil
! ligan. Some on 'em air powerful piZ-
! en- specially the rattlers and coppers,
! and that minds me, eff / wuz yourself
! I'd move a little further from that ere
! copper He amt 'zactly perty to look
| at an eff ye was ter rile i'm with yer
| boot he mout git vicious
! Long before that speech had ended I
/ had turned a sOmersault backward
which caused the mountaineer d great
deal of genuine pleasure to behold.
was about to exterminate the big slug
| gish reptile with stick that ] had
! seized when my companion asked me
| to wait a few moments, as king might
come along. Not exactly understand
| ing whether he expected a person Of
that name, and failing to see what that
I event had to do with my laudabla de-
! sire to smash the big, ugly thing that
! had presumed to take my leg for pill
| low, | asked him for an explanation.
Air it possible yer town folks dunno
what king air? Why king air the
! boss snake Nv the woods. He don't
do no harm to nuthin. 'ceptin' snakes,
an he doan pester them as hain't pizen.
But he do love a copper an a rattler,
which is the wurst snakes of these dig
gins, an he's death on 'em.
"Tother day l was gwine long q old
road, an all of a sudden I heerd
singin as tho a camp-meetin' had just
tuck in. l knowed it We're a rattler
and lookin' round l saw him on a
knoll, an powerful big un he wuz. He
wuz quilted up like a corkscrew. and
his rattles wuz a-makin' the air jim
gle But at first l couldn't 'scover the
cause and l knowed a rattler never
got ready fur business fur nothin'.
Presently l seed the grass aSwayln'
and a-bendin', and then the RATHER ne
gets nervous and skeered, an, unquil-
lin hisself, he made a break to run. l;ut
it wuz too late, for on came the king
like a hurricane, and putin hsself
just ahead the rattler, showed him his
jig wuz up Seem he couldn't 'scapa,
the rattler quilted ag'in and showed
fight The king, he commenced To run
around his inimy in a wide circle, the
rattler watchn', lickin' out his tongue,
and maxim his rattle sing like banier.
Closer and closer the king drawed his
ha 10
worn't more'n three feet from the ini
my.
Then the rattler, thinkin' he saw the
last show to save his bacon, made a
powerful spiteful lunge at the kinEs an
thar is whar he slipped up, for the king
he lodged, and quicker'n gun powder
wuz onto the RATHER Thar warent
nothn' but a ball of snakes in sight
for few minutes as they fought and
tussled over the grass, but arter Il lit-
tie | could see the red and black strip
ed king wound around the big rattlel'
just like a grapevine on a tree. Then /
seed the king hold i'm by the back ~
the neck, an I could hear him crushin'
the rattler as he tightened on him It
wor all over in half an hour, an the
king, unwindin hisself from his vic
tim got behind and waited for ten min
utes Then he crept up and put his
nose on the rattler's to see if ne WIZ
breathin' You see, other snakes know
the king, an sometimes possum on
him by pretendin' to be dead. But
the rattler was shore huff gone, and
when the king wor satisfied Nv this he
crawled in old stump hole and pre-
sently came out with a mOuse'3 tail
stickin' out of his mouf. But he soon
swallowed the mouse, an wiptn his
nose on the grass, went off sarchin for
more trouble. king alters eats 4 rat
or a toad after a fight to MAKE him
strong for the next un.
An now mister, l could tell You 4
powerful lot moren that, for l knows
snakes, I do, but I'll help you Kill the
copper, which mout not meet a king
until he bites some un eff we didn't, an
then I must hurry on after my oxen.
what I war huntin' when l seed that
varmint a-tryin' to go to sleep with
yourself '-Philadelphia Times.