Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-05-02
A Snake that Loved Music.

A party of musicians were discuss.
ing the question of the love of music
in various members Of the animal cre-
alton, and particularly among snakes.
The majority of them denied that
snakes in particular had any idea of
music and secuted the thing as abb
surd and impossible, when one Of them
offered to relate story from his own
experience that would be convincing
on the point at issue AS he was re-
puted to be good story teller his COM
panions agreed to hear the evidence,
however much they might doubt the
correctness Of his theories.
"Some years ago, said he, 81 was
the organist in little country church
near the Blue Mountains, in Schuyl-
kill county. The mountains were full
of snakes. fused often to go out in
the woods and take my cornet along,
Just to have little music and practice
by myself. One day was sitting on
a log by spring, playing softly and
hardly thinking what I was doing,
when I suddenly saw a giant black
snake very close to me, coiled up and
swaying his head to the rhythm of the
tune. | am not afraid of snakes and
knew this one to be as harmless as
kitten, so l was more amused than
frightened, and continued to play a
variety Of airs for him to see the effect.
He appeared to enjoy it immensely,
and when played something lively
he seemed to become almost delirious
in his gyrations. concluded that if
he had leg. he would surely dance,
and as it was his motions were exceed
ingly graceful and his ideas of time
excellent. His eyes shone with the
pleasure it was giving him and his
forked tongue fairly seemed to blaze
in the ecstasy ofhis enjoyment. Sud-
denly I stopped and he seemed very
picture ofsadness and disappointment.
He crawled up to me and asked me
to resume just as plainly as ifhe knew
every word in the English language.
at suddenly occurred to me that
it would be an interesting experiment
to see if he would follow the music.
So got up and, playing softly, began
to walk away. He followed me at
once, and l led him along down to the
church. When l unlocked the door
he followed me in without hesitation
and came right after me up into the
organ loft. l then tried him with the
organ and he was even more delighted
than with the cornet. Finding that
he would never get enough Of the
music, l was obliged at length to drive
him away by main force.
"The next day l went into the
church to practice and had not been
long at it when heard rustic on
the carpet and, looking down, there
was his snakeship taking it in, and
when I finished l had to drive him
away again. By the next Sunday l
had almost forgotten about the Incl
dent, when, just as We were in the
midst of the second hymn, sudden
ly heard a screaming and screeching
about the female members of the choir
as if some one was scalping them at
once l looked up just in time to see
my friend, the snake, disappearing
with shower of hymn books and
stools hurled by the male members Of
the choir, flying after him. Howev-
er. he escapedand I said nothing about
my previous acquaintance with the
reptile. You may imagine that it
broke up the service for awhile, but
finally everything quieted down and
went on as usual.
"After that the snake came again
for many weeks every timeI practiced,
but it seems that he had become con-
vinced that it was dangerous when
others were present, so he never again
entered the church during heservice
though doubtless he was listening at
safe point outside.
"Soon afterward members Of the
church reported that they had heard
mysterious breathings Of the organ at
night in passing the church and in
quired whether was practicing. l
assured them that l was not. This oc-
Cured several times, and as it could
not be satisfactorily explained 1t
aroused deal of comment and some
of the more superstitiOus began to
uhisrsr that the church was haunted