Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1870 — A Fearful Fight and a Horrible Death. [ARTICLE]

A Fearful Fight and a Horrible Death.

On Friday last a young man named Graynor asked me to spend the night with him and go coon hunting the next morning, to which request I readily assented. We started out about 8 o’clock a. m., and near day the dogs opened on s trail In the swamp of Bear Creek. Just after sunrise the deep baying of the dbgs informed us that the game had taken a tree. We proceeded to make our way through the bogs and tangled brush and vines In the direction of the dogs, until we came to a small space of flnu giound, which was covered with a low growth of oak bushes. Here we halted for a moment to listen for the dogs. We had barely paused when we were startled by a loud, strange, rattling sound, issuing from beneath a low, thick bush, within a few feet of us. - Though I had never heard that peculiar noise before, I knew Instinctively that it was a rattlesnake, and sprang back in terror, remarking, “ Graynor, let’s leave here.” “What, 8 ,” said he, "are you afraid?" “ Yes,’* said I, “ I am afraid.” “ Well, 8 ," he coolly remarked, “ I am going to kill the snake: it would be a pity to leave such a fine fellow here. 8o here goes." <■

While Graynor was speaking, I (aught a glimpse of the snake, which, as nearly as I could judge, appeared to be about eight feet in length, and three Inchea in diameter in his larger part. He was lying coiled up in perfect circles, with his head drawn bacx In a terribly graceful curve, his small, black eyes sparkling, his slender, forked tongue darting swiftly back and forth, and his brown neck swollen with fatal wrath, while ever and anon he twirled the warning rattles in the air with a harsh, blood curdling sound- “ For God’s sake, let’s go?’ said I, shuddering at the terrible sight ' “Don’t get scared?’ said G., just climb a tree, and he won’t bite you. It ain’t every day that a fellow meets with such a fine, large snake as tnis, and it wouldn’t do to lose him." He had picked up a small stick about a Iyard long, and, while speaking, was drawing back the bushes from above the snake, so as to get * sight of hUn He

threw his foot around over the bushes, and trampled them down in such a manner that the monster was fairly exposed to view; but Just as he did so, and before he had time to strike, the snake made a sudden spring at him, and I turned away my face in horror. The next instant Graynor exclaimed, “I’ve got him,by Georgel” I turned to look, and with his right hand he was grasping the snake by the neck in such a manner that he could not bite, while the monster was gnashing his teeth most furiously, and twisting and writhing in huge folds around G.’s arms. All of a sudden, in some unaccountable manner, the snake freed his head, and quick as lightning plpnged his deadly range into G.’s right cheek, when, dropping on the ground, he glided a few paces ana again coiled himself up, keeping his head erect and ringing his fearful rattles. G. turned deadly pale, paused a moment, and then with a little stick advanced toward the snake. As he did so the snake made a spring at him, but G. struck him with the stick and knocked him back. A second time the snake sprang at him, and he again knocked him off with the stick, but before he could strike a third blow, the snake had made another spring, and inflicted another wound in Graynor’s arm. This time Graynor again managed to seize the monster by the neck, and, dropping the stick, he drew forth his knife with one hand, opened it with his teeth, and then deliberately cut off the snake’s head. Blood spurted from the trunk, and Graynor, still grasping the snake, whose huge folds flapped and writhed around him, turned toward me, staggered, and fell. I rushed up to him ana asked him, “What, in the name of God, can I do for you?” “Nothing,” said he, calmly, “lam dying. Tell them good ” and his seatures became frightfully contorted, his eyes rolled over as if starting from their sockets, and his black, swollen tongue protruded from his mouth. Then he fixed his red, wild, staring eyes upon me, and heaved a deep, piercing groan; a shiver passed over his frame, ana then all was still. I was alone with the dead. Marking the place as well as I could, I hastened to a house we had passed on the road, some half a mile distant from the fatal tragedy. Runners were sent through the neighborhood, and in the course of two hours some twenty of ’the neighbors had gathered. We proceeded to the place, which I found no difficulty in pointing out. Good heavens! what a sight met our view. The face and body had turned to a deep purple, and were swollen to three times the natural size, presenting the most horrible appearance I had ever witnessed. The snake lay where he had been thrown, and was still writhing.“-Clqp4<wi, Ala., Car. Eufala Newi. _____