Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-26
4 MONSTER BLkCKsN akE.
said To BE the ProgenItor of the
Whole Tribe

From the New York sun
The most wond ,rful den Of snakes any,
where, l guess, said Judge h. Jugg Wright
OF Steuben county. lies OFF t. the south u
OLD Steuben, in a big stretch Of deep dark
woods In Potter county, Pa. known as tho
Black Forest. 1t is a barksnakr dem \
year never goes by that one or two i'm
mense blacksnakes are not overpowcred 10y
superior numbers of lumbermen or bark
pealers over there, as they are a.ways
proving about looking for unwary team
sters and unsuspecting persons afoot 1
don't suppose there ts another spot on this
continent where such monstrous black
snakes can be found. 1 don't know what II
Is that makes them grow So big there, but
my opinion is that the locality is 50 wild
and hard 10 get at that the snakes have
undisturbed opportunity TO reach a p;t-
triarchal age and take on slz, with their
years. / believe blacksnakes would get lust
as big elsewhere if they could only get tho
time.
Their is no doubt in my mind that soma
OF those Black Forest serpcnts We're born
long before this country was settI Il. [
have seen them with their faces as Wrin-
kled as a walnut and with long gray hair
on their upper lips. My br0rhrr-in-laW
Squire Hollis Of Woodruff tells about ou,,
he killed down there once that had funuy-
%
the lump six inches or 80 and found Hint
arrow head the bottom of it, There
could be but one explanation Of the prrs-
eEce OF that arrowhead tn re. The snake
mad been shot by an Indian some time As
there hadn't been any Indians hunting Wi n
bows and arrows in that country FOR about
three generations, of course the snake must
have been a lively native before the DAVIS
OF the white man thereabout. and nobody
knows how many years before that either.
Squire Hollis is willing to bet that tn,
snake was good deal more than a hume
dred years Old and it WAS as hale ana
hearty as a serpent could be.
Il say Squire Hollis killed the snake. brN
that Is hardly a correct statement He NV
numbering over in that region and had a
lot OF logs banked for rolling down a steep
slope into the creek Accidentally a log got
loose and away ii went down hill Ii had
gone maybe half way down and had taken
on tremendous momentum, when This eraka
came tearing out from some place where it
mad been hiding and rushed right out in fha
path of that flying log. There is no telling
what the snake thought the log was but he
was evidently in a state of supreme fury
at II, for he stopped and raised his head uD
and waited the coming OF the log. The hog
kept right on and struck the snake with All
the force it had accumula ted. The crash
was terrific. and the log stopped as IL IL had
brought up against a rock. The squire
went down the hill and found the log canted
up against the snake, and ne dec la rT.s
yet that if 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 to regret his foolishness IN rolling
IT into the creek after he had cut he lumD
and found the arrowhead, and letting il
float away without measuring II, because he
never could tell how long thu serpent was
The squire says, though. that If the snake
could have been seasoned and sawed up 1t
would have cut up into as nice a pile of
slNteen-foot boards a foot and a half wide
as any ever bought. That snake Z
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 It was the founder Of the
blacksnake family in that country There
wasn't gray hair on him. though, and his
teeth Wers as sound as a pebble"