The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-09-08
MACON SNAKES TERRIFIC.
Bridges Smith Tells One Eclipsing Au-
gusta Reptile Yarn.

Macon, has gone Augusta scribes one
better in point of snakes, says the
Augusta Chronicle. Writing his
column "Just Twixt U.s. in the Ma
con Telegraph, he recognizes, with
Just the correct number of shivers,
the undoubted terror young George
E. Paul, ex-soldier of 1915 Hickman
road, must have experienced when he
awoke to the crawl of a clammy rep
tile on his body; but Macon's ex-
mayor says he has something better.
He describes the sensation of a
scene in cell watching snake swal-
low a rat-the booze working Old
Limerick up to a fire frenzy until he
sees snakes of all colors. Here is Mr..
Smiths:
1.-The experience of that Augusta
Young man who was awakened in his
sleep by feeling something cold and
clammy crawling over his body, and
discovered a red snake three and a
half feet long as his disturber, and
his throwing the snake under his bed
and finally finding it coiled about his
shoes is not a circumstance to what
happened some years ago at the city
hall in Macon.
"It was during long drouth, when
the farmers were not only praying
for rain but employing every known
method to produce it, going so far as
to import a wizard rainmaker with
his battery Of. mortars and firing
blank cartridges at the clouds that
the conclusion might make some rain
| fall.
"The late Mayor DAISY Price had
heard of the old saying that to kill
a snake and hang it over nmb Of a
tree would cause rain before the sun
went down. He wanted to try out
the experiment and to that end he
advertised for snakes. They were to
be delivered dead or alive at the city
hall. This was before the auditorium
was built as an annex.
"Out of his pocket he offered to
pay for the snakes and soon the
woods and the swamp below the city
was dragnetted for snakes by boys
as we'll as men, and hundreds of the
squirming reptiles were brought in
to be killed by the street force and
hung on. the shade trees about the
city. There was hardly tree in the
business part of town that was not
festooned with all kinds of snakes,
from tho harmless little garter
snakes to the deadly rattlers. For
the truth of rain some history fol-
lowed, but the down pour was not
satisfactory as was wished, still the
old saying proved to have some gum
in it. The explanation given at the
time for the failure to produce a
flood that might have done the farm
ers good was that the snakes were i'm
properly hung, but nobody could be
found to say what the proper way
was, some saying that they should
have been suspended by the head, and
some that they should have been sus-
pended by the tail.
'In the collection brought to the
mayor was a large handsome black
snake, said to be harmless but was
terrible enemy to rats. At that time
a great many rats infested the base
ment of the old city hall, a part OF
which was used as is now, for a pris-
on for the drunks and disorderlles
and others who made a habit of
transgressing the city ordinances.
The rats thrived on the leavings Of
the meals furnished the prisoners,
and had accumulated in large num-
bers.
"While admiring the beauty of the
black snake, it occurred to Mayor
Price that he had on hand suftl-
cient number of snakes to flood the
whole country with rain he would
spare the life of this one and turn
it loose in the unused part of the
basement for the determination OF
the rodents, and this is what he did.
"Early one morning the watch
man (they call him station sergeant
now) heard the most heartrending
wells from cell No. 10. He He was
accustomend to hearing yells from
the drunks, and at first paid no at
tention, but the yells increased in VOL
ume and even denoting terror. He
didn't even know whether a murder
was being committed or riot was in
progress. He gathered club and
| hastened to cell No. 10. In it he saw
Old Limerick, then remarkable
tramp printer, whose life had been
spent in all the hoosegows OF the
/