Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-08-17

She alighted and took the horse by
the head, while the father jumped out.
got club and started to kill the
snake. The snake did not wait to be
killed, but came rapidly forward to
meet the man, with its head raised
two feet above the ground, and kissing
like steam valve.
The old gentleman swung his club
and caught the snake a blow on the
neck that knocked the reptile fiat, and
a couple Of whacl1s on the head with
the club killed it, so far as its power
for harm went, but the thrashing
about of its long body continued for
five minutes after the head was
smashed. That choice specimen Of
the Black Forest blacksnake measured
nearly y feet
These blacksnakes entertain
deadly hostility to our ra5tlesnakes
and are constantly hunting them Up.
The instant one Of these reptiles
strikes the trail of a RATHER it follows
it like hound does a deer, and the
doom Of that, RATHER is sealed. The
blacksnake is as much quicker than a
rattlesnake as a racehorse is quicker
than a canal mule, and the conse-
quence is that much time does not
elapse after blackSnake tackles a
rattler until there is one less RATHER.
There is nothing like a real good
rattlesnake country for the develop
ment of genius. For instance, there
was Hiram, folks used to call him.
He came originally from the Allie
gheny river part Of Potter county, in
all of which spread Of waters, strange
as it may seem, there is not, nor never
has been, any rattlesnakes, while a
mile over the watershed, where the
Susquehanna tributaries have their
rise, rattlesnakes are thick.
Its a pity we never had no rat
tlesnakes. over along the Allegheny
headwaters,' said Uncle Hiram, for
there amt no kind of doubt but that
it has kept the country back consid-
cradle, but we ave got a critter over
there that it seems to me ought to give
our folks a big push ahead long ago
ccnsiderin' the p'ints it's got. Maybe
some O. you over here might heerd
Of it. Some folks calls it an alligator
and some calls it a mud pup, but hell
! bender is its right name. 1t ain't
neither fish, flesh nor fowl, as nigh
as I kin git at it. 1t lives in the mud
at the bottom Of the Allegheny river
winter time and if you should want to
git any of EN- you'd have to mine en-
| like coal. In the summer it sWims
and crawls about in the water and
walks out on the banks and lays in the
shade, because it has legs. Some folks
over there says it amt p'ison, but I'll
| tell you sOmethin' an then you kin
| judge for yourself whether it's pisOn
or not. | speared one in the body once
and it reached its head around and
| sOcked its fangs in the spear handle
| In a few seconds that spear handle be-
| gan to swell, and it kept on swellin
| till it got as big as my arm, and then
! it busted into a hundred pieces. The
p'ison the hellbender had squirted into
| IL W do 81 &c, CIlOtSli, IildI IilI oOdC
| term pieces of spear handle kept on
| swellin' and Dustin till I couldn't see
| ten feet away, the air was so thick
with the flynn splinters, and the noise
of their Dustin put me in mind of the
old Liberty guards firm a voIley or
gener'l trainin' day. 1t come blame
nigh scarin' me, and when I looked
| h. ~
| iron prongs O. the spear had turned as
green as a new cowcumber, I waded
out and went home. I always held
after that specimen Of what hell
bender could do that the hellbende1
was p'ison, but you kin judge for your
own sells
Hiram had discovered, he said, that
| taking a bite through the neck Of a
| live rattIesnake was a sure restorer
and preservative of the teeth, and
that the heart Of a rattlesnake eaten
by the patient would cure consump-
ton. I must have looked my doubt OF
Uncle Hiram's discovery, for he said:
Well, now, then, just look at my
wife's brother, Joe Mealey. Hammer,
said Hiram, calling to his wife, who,
by the way, was a native of the rat
t1esnake country. Hannah stuck her
head through the kitchen door, show
ing a red face and amazingly white
teeth. Hammer said Hiram, WASH
Joe pooty nigh dead with consump-
tion when he eat that rattlers hearth
eve all think So said Hannah,
and couldn't help but notice her even,
white teeth, and anybody'd think so
that seen him.