The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-26
A YARN ABOUT SNAKES
AUGHT no DRINK
End Came I'm Deiirium Tremens and a
Swapping Turtle.
WHISKY.

cock / objected, but sort of doubtful
ly.
Seth Hopkins looked at me as if hi
thought I was a big fool. There ain't
now he says scornful-lke, but do you
think a creature of the intelligence of q
blacksnake can't be trained so as tC
have educated tastes like man? What
does big Tom Evans like best of any
thing?
" Whisky I answered up promptly
"'But Icl didn't care for it the first
time he tanted it, says Seth, earnestly
Neither does a blacksnake. Tom would
rather have drink of whisky now than
a. carload of woodcock And black
snake could be educated
Seth Hopkins, 1 interrupted, for
was mighty shocked that you, a men,
Der of the church and professor of re-
ligion, intend to catch these innocent
snakes and deliberately corrupt them
until they fill drunkards' graves?'
Fudge replied Seth, but in sort
of an annoyed way, I amt going to
corrupt innocent snakes" I'm going
to take full grown ones that are old
enough to take drink or leave it alone.
Good whisky never harmed man or
snake unless they took enough to inter-
fere with their work, and my snakes
amt going to get any until they have
done their duty. A blacksnake's life
is Ia monotonous one at the best, and it
Is only an act of kindness to give him
something that will cheer his heart
Here I'm planning an act of charity
and blamed if you don't act as if
ought to have regular snakes Christ
ian temperance union put on my TRAIL,
so Seth caught half a dozen extra
! big blacksnakes and set to work train
ing thine educating he called it, In
spite of his fine words about charity to
poor snakes / couldn't reconcile his
way of training them to my conscience.
For it was nothing more nor less than
building up a desire for strong drink,
and making drunkards of those poor
misguided creatures. Still, was mighty
curious to know how his experiment
would turn out, and it wasn't any of
my business to interfere. So I didn't.
1.-THE first thing Seth did was to mix
a little liquor with the food of his
snakes by dipping the pieces of meat
he gave them in whiskey. AT first the
snakes wouldn't touch the meat, but
it was all they could get to eat, so they
finally swallowed 1T. A blacksnake
seems to take to whisky pretty natural
ly, and it was only a few days before
Seths snakes wouldn't look at their
meat unless it had taste of liquor
about it. Seth kept them III a little
pen, and they soon got to know him.
When he came out to feed them the
,o1ro all l,,Yr 49, Sal, 4
crawl around him, and lift up their
heads and sort of make fuss over him,
as if they were telling him what a
good fellow he was and how glad they
were to see him, and wouldn't he please
give them drink, for all the world
like lot of loafers when an easy thing
comes into a bar-ruom
Its an interesting experiment in
Make nature, and shows that, black
Anakes have q human liking for good
fiquor,' 1 said to Seth, but L don't see
where Seth Hopkins is getting birds out
Of. the game.
Don't worry about that, deacon,
says Seth, as compiacent as If he were
some benefactor of dumb brutes The
first thing is to get thes snakes of mine
anxious for liquor. The next thing will
be to teach them that the only way
they can get a drink is to turn in a
bird When these intelligent creatures
realize that fact, your uncle Seth will
swing in his hammock and smoke while
six Well-trained and extra big black
snakes scurry around the country look
ing for woodcock to bring in and ex-
change for drinks. It's brain work and
not smokeless powder that makes
great hunter in the closing year of the
century,
Seth knew a backsnake depended a
good deal on charming, or "hypnotizng,'
as he called it, to catch birds, and he
acted on this idea in the second part
of his task in training the snakes. First |
Seth got some traps, and after good |
deal of trouble-for woodcock had been
shot at so much they were mighty ehy-
he caught few live birds Then Seth |
would tie a bird on a pole, where it |
would be out of the reach of a snake |
The string with which the bird was tied |
prevented it from flying away, and at
the same time was long enough so that |
the snake could bring the bird to Seth
If charmed so as to fall into the power
of the snake.
Seth waited until his backsnakes
were pretty thirsty and then, instead Of
giving them anything that resembed
good liquor, he took one Of them out
where a bird was tied. 1t was whisky
not woodcock, the snake wanted, and at
first the snake would pike right over to
where Seth was standing and fairly beg
for a drink. Seth would take it back
and put it in front of the bird.
" LISA case of no bird, no booze
Seth says to me when I came over to
watch his school, as he called it. The
of that retiring, but useful.
animal, the blacksnake, has been UNI
But these are educated
snakes, brought up under my own eye,
and it won't be long before they appreci-
ate what | want of them. When they
that Uncle Seth isn't run
ming free distillery, but wants birds,
they will establish new record in the
history Of woodcock hunting
Seth put all six of his snakes
through their schooling. But theirs just
rs much difference in the intelligence of
snakes as there is of men, and big
that Seth called Pete was
he first to comprehend what Seth want
ID. Pete realized after a few lessons
hat every time he charmed bird and
brought it to Seth he had d drink COM
ng. Then Pete wanted to work over
ca Ii.