Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1918 — “THE SNAKY PEACE”—A FABLE [ARTICLE]

“THE SNAKY PEACE”—A FABLE

By EUGENE H. BLAKE of the Vigilantes. A snake having invited a tame squirrel to play on the ground and enjoy the fallen acorns, swallowed the little animal half down before It knew what had happened. But the squirrel catching its breath, twisted around and caught the snake’s neck. “The squirrel attacked me,” the snake managed to say to a man who had come up with a stick to see what the trouble was. “Let the man decide what is just,” the squirrel offered, “and we will abide by it.” The snake objected: ‘1 must, as things stand today, in the name of the Serpentine Power, decline this court as prejudiced.” The squirrel asked what the snttke would agree to. “An intimate meeting for discussion would be the way to remove the numerous intentional or unintentional misunderstandings. Let us crawl into this hollow log where we can’t be annoyed by outsiders and I will cheerfully disgorge and return to the status quo ante.” Just as soon as the belligerents had got out of sight in the log and the snake could finish annexing the rest of the squirrel, its fangs darted out of a knot-hole and sank into the man’s foot. Back-fire: The world had better have a look In at the peace conference,