The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

I And I tell you that in all my life I've never known of but two or | three people actually being bitten by | water moccasins, and until this morning early I never had personal knowledge of anybody at all dying from the bite of any kind Of snake.
 Horses?-well. yes. Dogs?-maybe so But not a human being.
 Still, the proof is clear enough in this case, l think I'll write a paper about it for the next meeting of the State Medical society.
 "The places where the fangs nip ped him were right there in the ball of his thumb-two bloody deep little scratches, side by side.
 And then there was that lock on his face-ugh. I'm fairly hardened but I'm not going to forget Jafe Nor ner's face In hurry. He died quick, I'd say off hand, but he died hard, too; I'll swear to that part of it. Well, he was the kind who likely would flicker out preuy brisk un- | der certain circumstances. Ever mo- tice the color of his skir and these heavy pouches under his eyes? Bad whisky and bad food and swamp levers didn't put those signs on him. The late Japhet had a rotten bad heart, Jimmy"
 | "He shorley did" agreed Mclean fervently. "Yistiddy proved that" T don't mean exactly in that case" explained the physician. q mean there was an organic weakness. Curious thing, though, there was no swelling around the wounds nor any swelling In his hands or arm; no noticeable blotching of the skin, either. And yet, if there's anything in the accepted theories of the toxic effects of a venomous snakes bite, those conditions should have been marked. Oh. I'll have quite a paper to read before the society"
 "Mebbe the swellin' had done went down before you got to him." sug- gested the morbidly interested farmer.
 "No, he couldn't have been dead more than a short while when they went down there to set the dogs on the trail and found him; Sheriff Gill tells me he was still warm. And I was there net ten minutes after that. | It's a mighty unusual case-several features about 1t that puzzles me.
 "Frinstance now, what about the snake that gashed him? Whicha- | way did it come from beforehand and | where did it head for afterwards? didn't see any snake tracks in the ground close to where he was laying Il looked for 'em, too. Still. the horse lot was pretty well trampled.
 Now, that poer forlorn old crea- ture that you people in this neigh borhood call Snake Doctor, he's got his own pet theory about 1t. He | keeps on saying it was the vengen- ance of the Lord falling upon a red handed murderer. He thinks the fellow was drawn back tC the seat of his crime-well, that might be so; i've heard of such things before and about the Divine wrath lit on | him.
 But if I was him I'd be poking under the stable or the cabin for a whopping big snake.
 "He tells me, though-and he ought to be an authority on the sub ject if anybody is-he tells me that water moccasin never travels many yards away fire m the water and that nighttimes they always den up some- ] where. being cold-blooded creatures that love the sunshine. And on top of that he swears to me that there never have been any moccasins close | about his diggin's unless he'd brought em there dead or else as a prisoner in a sack"
 why, looky here ,doc, DrCke Tn Mclean. "he lied to you. then. There's always been a sayin' round here l that Snake Doctor kept huge big cotton-mouth right with him in his | house all the time.'
 "Yes. that's true. I saw it myself not an hour ago." said the doctor, | smiling a little. "I reck on the old | fellows smarter than folks give him credit for being. He took me in his shack and showed it to me-" But I thought you jes' now said
 "Wait till I finish. He took me in and showed it to me just as I'm tell | ing you. But 1t was deader than Hector. It was stuffed snake with glass eyes and all. It seems a professional taxidermist who was up here from Memphis some years ago mounted 1t for ~ur eccentric friend.
 We'll. I'll tell the world he made, a good job of 1t.
 | "Lifelike?-you bet you! See 1t in
 poor light and you'd almost be ready tC swear you saw 1t move its | head. I wouldn't have the thing round me for any amount of money.