The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-22

] every OL1ET musician tHlS part Oh LnS
| state"
/ Isl understood how to handle snakes,
/ and he had natural talent for playing the
| fiddle. Whenever he fed the snakes he gave
/ them tune, and the rattlers, being intel
| ligent Pike county products. soon learned
| to associate feeding time and music and to
enjoy both. Some OF the snakes, like some
men, had more of an appreciation for mu-
| sic than the others. 81 picked these out
and began giving them lessons The snakes
! soon came to know him, so that he
wasn't afraid to handle them. 81 would
! take a couple of musicalIy inclined young
rattlers out of the box, place them on the
| floor. and play few bars in slow, wav-
cry sort Of way. One OF the snakes would
sway his head in time with the music
/ There was always a piece of raw meat, or
! a field mouse coming to that snake 1t
wasn't long before the snakes understood
what was wanted, and every snake would
devote his energies to keeping time to the
music In the sincere, earnest manner in
which a rattlesnake carries out any job it
/ tackles Finally 81 got his snakes so that
they would follow the music. fast or slow,
| Just as he happened to play, all keep
| ing perfect time. 1t wasn't a sight
! that would be popular at gold cure, but
| as snakes dancing class exhibit
it certainly was success. Then 81 judged
! that his pets educa ton was complete.
He was the proudest and happiest man
| in Pike county.
g Those Indian fakirs, who teach few
broken spirited, cobsas to wave their
heads in a nonchalant manner may be
all right for the effete East, ST announced
that evening to the crowd at the tavern,
but when they cry to compete with Amer
lean snakes, trained by an American mu-
sicai genius, they are running away out
of their class. The graduating exercises
| n he frcf oil 9 H. ID
tlesnakes' Collegiate Institute will be held
in my barn a week from next Saturday
j evening. All present are invited to at-
tend and bring their families and friends.
A small admlttance fee will be charged
for the benefit of the worthy owner and
trainer of these snakes. But will guar
antee that the show VIII be worth more
than the price
Isl was a good-hearted old fellow for
all his conceit, and being always willing
to play at Pike county social gatherings,
he was mighty popular. Everybody but
old Elder Allison promised to attend the
exhibition Elder Allison had always
hated 81 since the time ST said that there
wasn't any more harm in dancing after
II O'Clock Saturday night than there was
in staying up planning to freeze some
poor woman out of her farm, and then
| grooming amen so hard in prayer meet
ing that the plaster fell. The elder sort
of sneered at Sis promise of an interest.
ing exhibition.
." It's mighty easy. snarled Elder Al
lison, to say you will have dancing
snakes or dancing elephants. We will
probably pay our good money and be
goldbricked by the sight of a few half
starved rattlesnakes driven by ill-treat-
ment to do a lot of inane antics for the
benefit of a collection of Cfrlveling idiots
Isl flared up at this.
| III bet You any amount you want
Elder Allison he fairly shouted. that my
educated snakes will do all that I claim
for them
The elder stood sort of doubtful for a
minute. Then a cunning light showed up
in his little eyes.
I'm opposed to gambling in any
form he said in his pious way But, just
| to give you a lesson not to go around
beguiling people with your fairy stories
about educated snakes I'll bet you 800
against your farm that there will be
more snake fighting than snake dancing
on the occasion of your unsanctifed ex-
hibit.'
ISIS farm was worth more than 500
and it was all he had in the world, but
he hated to back down on the elders
challenge so he took the bet. The next
day the elder put up the 800 and ST a
/ bScu " HIS ldEHl Win the StdRe0Ol0er.
was nightly worried when heard of the
| affair.
| " The elder is a good man. a pious
man. I warned 81. He's a member of my
| church, and it's not for me to say a
word against him. But never knew the
elder to make bet unless he had a steel
ribbed cinch. He says there will be more
| fighting than dancing. don't know of
any animals that are pining to fight edu-
| Gated rattlesnakes, but L think the elder
will stand watching
What animal is the natural enemy of
! the rattlesnake? Always willing and anx-
| ious to have mix-up? ST ask me why
| the blacksnake, to be sure This morning
| l spied the elder down in the valley bus
| lily engaged in making a collection of
healthy and puenacious blacksnakes It's
evidently his plan to come to my barn
Saturday evening with his backsnakes.
release them when my educated snakes
| tegin dancing, gloat over the subsequent
| fight, and finish up by winning my farm.
| 1t looks easy to the elder as robbing
blind baby. But before your Uncle ST
gets through with him Elder Allison will
find that he cuts less ice than wooden
money in the internal regions
| Il reproved 81 for his vehement Ian
guage. aud asked him how he proposed
! to doublecross the pious elder.
Why responded ST, sort of impatient
like, there's a good deal of family re-
semblance between blacksnakes of the
same size. A loving blacksnake mother
may be able to distinguish between them,
but the average elder can't Blacksnakes
have better ear for music, and more gen.
eral intelligence than rattesnakes With
the experience I've had II won't be a
difficult task to train a few blacksnakes
so that by the time 1 have my exhibition
they will dance blithey to the same tunes
as my cherished rattlers. As the elder
says, I'm opposed to gambling" But
supposing on the evening of my show l
purloin the elders blacksnakes and substi-
tute my own trained ones? know where
he keeps his pets and 1t won't be hard
thing to do. l may be wrong, Out think
it is good betting that an admiring aud
fence will see more things than they ex-
pected in the line of acrobatic reptiles l
will collect 100 much needed dollars and
the elder will get a lesson on the evils of
sure-thing- betting that will restrain him
for the rest of his life from engaging in
gambling and other pastimes of worldly
men, And ST winked gleefully at the
thought of the downfall of the worthy ell
der.
when the day of the exhibition came
ST had half a dozen good sized black
snakes trained so that they were about
as active in what he called the terpsicho-
rean art as the ratters themselves There
was one tune in particular that when ST