Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1893 — TWO OF A KIND. [ARTICLE]

TWO OF A KIND.

Snakes Galore latest From tlie Gas Belt, For several years a big snake has been reported as hibernating in Jay county, in the vicinity of the Jacob Gaunt farm, about twenty miles north of M uncie. This season the reptile bigger and longer than ever. A garty of <Gypsies camping in Jefferson towifthip. claim that it raided their camp one night, seizing a child. The mother, in pure desperation, attacked the reptile with a firebrand, and finally beat lt off. Last week it killed a calf and was in the act of swallowing its prey when the farmer and his two sons, armed with shotguns, appeared and opened battle. The snake disappeared in an adjacent swamp, not much hurt by the fusilade. Frightened Jay county farmers assert that it is forty feet long and big around as a barrel. In some neighborhoods there is no venturing out alter nightfall because of the general alarm. While a party of picnickers of Gas City, headed by Dr. J. C. Walker and wife, wero enjoying themselves at Rock Dam, two miles south on the Missinnewa river, where the water swiftly swirls over huge rocks, a huge blacksnalce suddenly appeared and was quickly killed. Almost instantly there was a rush of hissing, writhing, crawling snakes of every species, and the party fled In dismay. The snakes were estimated at not less than one hundred in number, and among them were two said to be twenty feet in length. A snakehunting party has been organized at Gas City. •