Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1879 — What a Man Got for Interfering at a Snake Fight. [ARTICLE]

What a Man Got for Interfering at a Snake Fight.

Mi. Vernon (Ohio) Banner. Mr. William Bowei-smith, a Hum baud, while working in a field near where Owl Creek empties into the Mohican, met with &□ encounter a few days afro that seldom fells to die lot of man. Mr. Bowersmith had taken an ax In his hand to repair some fences bordering on the streams above referred to. Passing over a little bayou formed by the back water in the recent freshet, and over which a large sycamore had fallen, he came to a little uuused pieoe of ground, deeply shaded by buckeyes and the oommou larch, aud grown over by tall grass and ironweeds. Mr. B. repaired some breaks in the fence and was turning to gp away, whenhis attention was attracted by most peculiar sounds, described as something like the hissing of geese mingled with dull thuds, like Striking on anold boot. Mr. Bowersmith tamed his eyes in the direction of the sounds and saw the grass and weeds SKrSErSSf cautiously, and by climbing upon a ■* never to ue forgotten. Almost beneath his feet, locked in deadly conflict, lay i two immense serpents, hissing, writhing and twisting, while their crimson mouths exuded blood and froth. Their eyes gleamed like sockets and protruded from their heads like beads They feshtaeg^nd^rttfa^fr^^f

|pi ration to© an&ite orevr nia uaacuv U^ e i^ U r th h* of with a common grain sickle In hit band, and who desired to see Mr. Bowersmith upon some important matter—followed him to the spot and found him as above narrated. It was but the work of a moment for the neighbor to cut the body of the serpent In twain and release the unfortunate man, who was restored to consciousness by the abundant application of water and the imbibing or a little spirits which the neighbor had in his poeesskm. The serpents proved to be two huge reptiles of the species known as the Black snake. After straightening them out the smaller one measured six feet four Inches from tip to tip, and the other eight feet two indies, and was thought to be some three inches in diameter. Mr. Bowersmith has now nearly recovered, although his shoe is still swollen from the poisonous effects of the serpent’s fangs, and the shock to nis nervous system would have proved fatal to a leas robust man.