Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1890 — AWFUL EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

AWFUL EXPERIENCE.

A Dibwin Woman Has a Saak* Coll Itoelf Around Her Hock. • Mrs. Stetson and daughter of Union township were berrying in the vicinity «f Harbor Bridge, sars a Newcastle (Del.) letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer, when they had a lively encounter with a snake. Mrs. Stetson was making her way through a thicket of email trees and bushes, her daughter following at a distance of fifteen or twenty yards. Suddenly a long .make of a greeniah-brown color swung from a small tree at Mrs. Stetson's side, and, quick as a flash, began coiling itself around her neck and shoulders. Almost paralyzed with fright, the woman stood rooted to the ground for almost a minute. Then recovering her •senses she screamed loudly for help. Miss Stetson rushed forward to ascertain the cause of the outcry. She was horrified upon reaching the spot to find her mother in the coils of the reptile. The poor woman had succeeded in getting her hands around its slimy body about six inches from the hend. Her hold was a firm one, but it required all her strength to keep the snake from getting its head close enough to do injury with its fangs, which it kept thrusting at her face. All this time it kept tightening its grip around her neck, and soon her face began to assume a purplish hue, while her tongue, swollen to twice its natural size, hung from her mouth, and her eyes bulged almost from their sockets. Miss Stetson is a cool and nervy young lady, and grasping a stick she hit the snake a telling blow on the head. This caused it to loosen its coil, but not before the woman had fainted. Her daughter then attempted to pullthe serpent away, but found her mother’s fingers deeply imbedded in its flesh, and all efforts to get them loose failed. The young woman then proceeded to -carry and to drag by turns her now unconscious parent to a stream of water about fifty yards from the place. A liberal application of the cool liquid brought her back to consciousness. She still grasped the snake in her hands, and it required no small effort, accompanied by pain, for her to straighten her fingers sufficiently to allow the snake to drop. She was then assisted to a farmhouse half a mile distant, where she was kindly cared for, after which she was conveyed to her home in a carriage. The shock was too much for her, and Mrs. Stetson is now lying at her home in a critical condition. '■