Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-05-27
THIS SNAKE LOVED MUSIC.
Dwelt in the Church and Became
Fair Performer on Organ.

| al OtISiHlCT OIi VI JdHs
A party of musicians were dis
cussing the question of the love Of
music in various members of the
animal creation, and particularly
among snakes The majority Of
them denied that snakes in particular
had any idea of music and secuted the
thing as absurd and impossible, when
one of them offered to relate g story
from his own experience that would
| be convincing on the point at issue.
AS he was reputed to be good story
teller his companions agreed to hear
the evidence, however much they
might doubt the correctness of mis-
theories.
Some years ago." said he, 81 was
the organist in little country church
near the Blue mountains, in Schuylkill
county The mountains were full of
snakes. | used often to go out in the
woods and take my cornet along, just
to have little music and practice by
myself One day I was sitting on
log by a spring, playing softly and
hardly thinking what | was doing,
when | 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 | was more amused
than frightened, and continued to play
a variety of airs for him to see the
effect. He appeared to enjoy it i'm
mensely, and when played something
/ lively he seemed to become almost
delirious in his gyrations. I con-
cluded that if he had legs he would
surely dance, and as it was his
motions were excellent His eyes
/ shone with the pleasure it was giving
him, and his forked tongue fairly
seemed to blaze in the estasy of his
enjoyment. Suddenly I stopped and
he seemed a very picture of sadness
and disappointment. He crawled up
/ to me and asked me to resume just as
| plainly as if he knew every word in
the English language.
TT 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
j to walk away. He followed me at
once, and led him along down to the
church. When [ unlocked the door
he followtd 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 de-
! lighted than with the cornet. Finding
that he would never get enough Of
the music, was obliged at length to
drive him away by main force.
The next day I 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 snakesh.p taking it in, and when
finished I had to drive him away
again. By the next Sunday | had al
most forgotten about the incident,
when, just as we were in the midst
Of the second hymn, | suddenly heard
la screaming and screeching among
the female members of the choir as if
some one was scalping them all 1T
once. looked up just in time to see
my friend, the snake, disappearing with
a shower of hymn books and stools
hurled by the male members of the
choir, flying after him. However, he
escaped and / 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 an /
went on as usual
after that the snake came again
for many weeks every time prac-
ticed, but it seems that he had become
convinced that it was dangerous when
others were present, SO he never
again entered the church during ser
vice, though doutless 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
inquired whether / was practicing.
assured them that I was not. This
occurred several times, and as it could
not be satisfactorily explained it
aroused deal of comment and some
of the more superstitious began to
whisper that the church was haunted
land that the spirit of former
organist was at the bottom of it. AS
the mystery was beginning to tell on
the nerves of the neighborhood, as
we'll as on my own, determined to
ferret it out. The music would gen
orally sound as if someone were
touching the keys with one finger, al
though sometimes number of keys
would be depressed simultaneously.
but whenever I would enter the
church | would find no one there.
The organ, however, would be open,
though had left it closed when I last
used it.