The sun., 1899-04-23
WHERE ESNAKES WERE MANY
EARLY RECoLLECTIoNs OF 4 SOUTH
ERN OHIO GIRL.

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When was girl. shlu the wne OF wen
known New Yorker. lived in southern Ohio.
and II seems TO me now that our nelRhoorhood
must have been particularly taVorlte one TOT
snakes. Tor all sorts ana conditions OF snakes
appeared TO dwell thcre ana thcrnnhout i re-
mcmoer once Ihat 'he men nv WORK on ia'm
near ours called my niue brother ana me as
we were on our way nome IRON schooI on" uay'
to come over into the ilcld ana see what 'h'y
had found. we went over ihe men IN NOV
Ing or blasting large rock hau io"hu
snakes nest There were twelve round
eggs. MS big as mems eggs IN me
nest The shell was so't' so that when TOOK
mp one oil the eggs my ilnHers mace uents IN IT,
The men Orok" the rSgS ana IN cach one was u
young snake cplNi a'"nhu tne ius'"'' an"
eight or nine inches long. Inc men. VINO
seemed to know all about snakes. SAID they
had never seen eu"h Dig snakes eggs pe'ore'
and as there hai hcon story around thht
spotted s'akr. i'"ra than twelve teet long ana
bigger around tnaa mans arm. had been ire
duently seen In that locality ana hs the young
snakes in the eggs w"rr spotted. it wrs dcci led
that the story about III" enormous serpent was
true and that the most ana eggs belonged to IT,
They never found the old snake though.
We had to"E "I guinea iowls IN our nouI-
try yard, and one season. for some economical
purpose unknown 10 me. the hens all laid their
eggs In one nest TIL" eggs werc left there to
see what the noisy fowls Intended to do with
them. was greatly Interested in this agGre-
CATION of eggs. and visited the nest daily. ana
one day noticed that they were not increasing
In number. although ] knew the hens wore
laying. Somebody or something was stealing
the eggs. and so my mother said might re-
move them The hens kent on laying, hut
when | went to tn" nest there wou'a
be no eggs. At last nei%hhor who
professed to know lot OF things said
that hlacksnak"s were very fond OF
eggs. and ns backsnakcs were plentiful
80 49,, l., ,oii ,, ,ho, ,bo,. var. rohhir,
tnereaoou' ne oi Nv" ',r"' ,',s Ne.s .s ,o'ns
our guinea hens nest. There were three eggs
III s"e hratnsr fn, ~"v sco.,cd ,hat wa leave them in
my oro.hsr s"SR"S,. ,''a. w. m.,r .',1. h,na, ~
snakes were robhtns the nest So we hid in n
manRer' from Which we cou,u peek over anu anu
see the guinea hens nest in one corner OF the
oarh noo' VIZ nSo m%o[n 'o"r awiine
"e saw "'s ''"'N ,,''e .. ''t
,he harm Wv, door r'Iv and ' ~" STRAIGHT to the
.ne oa'n u'' anu :, 81. o ", tho
guinea n'ho nsS. ,,,o,in ,oos n 'h,e, % ,s '.o o
entirely an amazing proceeding that that my y
regardless % @G Of the % fact that our egg eggs were dis
appearing 1t took the snake a long time to
IIa,r . tla but ftor INtr ba
tiles throat we could see it slipping along the
n,. w 9 a1os. out - soa tho
IN .ne ereek We aos' mos, nuGnea % ou. 10 See nS 'nS
narticularlv ] when when it stoned suddenly and
49, hie, hun,r n ,ha sn,ta vhora
itiay. The snake hadn't more than forced the
egg down its throat than 1t seized another one
and put it through the same process. Then
there were two big humps in the snake and we
thought it was about time to interfere and kill
the stea'thy foDDer when our ois toinca' Daroy
cams int, the barn through the chicken hole
and he ststSrered the big hiscksnake, on the
barn. floer almost the moment he came in. !. He
eggs ins,ds nf him; The cat would have
FIRST struggle he hadn't jumped on, the
hpwps and smashed The the eggs that made them
"s n @'ap R
70 and WIS making things look rather dark for
With pttehforR and md a " ilaii Il and SC soon settled
the fight; That snake was more m than n seven yer
taken ali the missing guinea hens eggs. for we
didn't lose any more after that.
I'm tell you what made that cat Darby OF
Qurs so dead set against snakes. aud partcu-
larry blacksnakes. We had a species Of black
e hus Il that tat SEs can neens hs
that snakes of this kind had been killed that
We're dreaded because Of their puenacity and
constructive powers. one. within my recollection.
having attacked girl who was picking black
berries and almost squeezed the breath ont of
her before help came The biggest blue racer
ever saw was eight feet long. and that was the
one that first reused Dnrby,s enmity toward
snakes. Darby was one ot the old-fashi med
tiger cats. He had n mate OF the same kind.
and one spring she brought us a family Of six
kittens. Her favOrte place was in the kitchen.
and when her kittens were Just old enough to
tumble about and play Darby would sit by the
hour on the window ledge. outside, and watch
them through the window as they frolicked
One day our hired girl had gone into the sitting
room from the kitchen. and as she was going
back into the kitchen she saw a hig snake Glid.
ing into it from the cCllarwav. the door having
been left partially open The girl. terribly
frightened. ran clear to the paror. where she
locked herself in. There was no one else in
the house mother having gone to nrighbor's
and brother and I heng At school After the
girl had recovered somewhat from her fright
she ventured to return 10 the Kitchen door
which she opened caut ously and reered into
the kitchen According to her story. she saw
the mo,her Of the kittens lying on tbs
floor not only dead. but looking as Il
she had been run between heavy rollers
she was SO fiat. Five OF her kittens
wild-eyed and with tho fur on their tiny
bodies standing erect were huddled about her