The times., 1899-08-24
A SNAKE TO BE REAL PROUD OF.
He Was as Big Log and Fully
One Hundred Years Old.


(FroIn the Minneapolis Triubune.)
1.-The most wonderful den Of snakes any
where, l guess" said Judge b. Jugg
Wright lies off to the south OF old Steu-
ben, in d big stretch of deep, dark woods
in Potter county, Pennsylvania, known as
the Black Forest. 1t is a blacksnake den.
A year never goes by that one or two i'm
mense blacksnakes are not overpowered
by superior numbers of lumbermen or bark
peelers over there, as, they are always
prowling about looking for unwary team
sters and unsuspecting persons afoot.
don't suppose there is another spot on
this continent where such monstrous
blacksnake5 can be found.
There is no doubt in my mind that
some of those Black Forest serpents we're
born long before the country was settled.
have seen them with their faces as
wrinkled as a walnut and with long gray
hair on their upper lips. Ny brother-in-
law, Squire Hollis of Woodruff, tells
about one he killed down there once that
had funnylooking lump on its side. He
cut down into the lump six inches or SO
and found flint arrow head at the bot
TOM There could be but one explanation
of the presence of that arrow head there.
The snake had been shot by an Indian
some time AS there hadn't been any In
dians hunting with bows and arrows in
that country for about three generations.
of course the snake must have been a
lively native before the days OF the white
man thereabout, and nobody knows how
many years before that, either.
II say Squire Hollis killed that snake.
but that Is hardly correct statement He
was numbering over in that region and had
a lot of logs banked for rolling down a
steep slope into the creek. Accidentally a
| H. nd . he
hill. 1t had gone maybe half way down,
and had taken on tremendous momentum,
when this snake came tearing out from some
place where il had been hiding and rushed
right out in the path of the flying log There
is no telling what the snake thought the
log was but he was evidently in a state of
supreme fury at IL, for he stopped and
raised its head UP and waited the coming
of the log The log kept right OF and struck
the snake with all the force IL had accumu-
lated The crash was terrific and the log
stopped as If it had brought up against a
rock The squire went down the hill and
found the log canted UP against the snake
and he declares yet that II he hadn't seen
the collision he wouldn't have known which
was the snake and which was the log, they
were so near of a size. The snake was dead
from the shock, though and Squire Hollis
has never ceased 10 regret his fooliShness in
rolling il into the creek after he had cut the
lump and found the arrow head, and letting
il float away without measuring it, because
he never could tell how long the serpent
was. The squire says. though, that il the
snake could have been seasoned and sawed
up il would have cut up into as nice pile
of 16-foot boards foot and a half wide
as anyone ever bought. The snake, of
course, was an exception to the ordinary
run of Black Forest snakes and from what
the squire says, there isn't any doubt at all
in my mind that 1t was the founder OF the
blacksnake family in that country. There
weren't grey hair on him. though, and his
teeth were as sound as pebble"