Fish stories have been going the rounds, and snake stories are now in order. Last week it was discovered that the old Carter well, one mile west of town had been converted into a den of snakes. An eye witness declared that there were from 25 to 50 living snakes in that well, which had filled up until it was about 15 feet deep not with snakes, but with dirt. So, accordingly, a posse, consisting of Billy Cook, the drummer, captain, with privates Darcy Dunne,Emil Bowers ,Sam Jackson , Joe Taylor, Calib Fridley and Park Thornton - was organized, and arming themselves with a 15 foot fishing pole and some hooks, they marched to the scene of the snakes. They came back within an hour with 17 wriggling snakes, strung on a wire, and Capt. Cook came at once to this office and exhibited the catch. There were at least three different spices of snakes, all measuring from three to four feet in length. There were blue racers, garter and bull snakes, but no rattlers, although the boys claim that they saw one rattler in the bunch. The party captured about half of the snakes, the remainder getting away in the crevices in the well. The manner of the capture was this. They fastened a couple of fish hooks on the end of a long fishing pole, and reaching down the well, hooked the snakes, one by one, until 17 were captured. Ex-Co. Clerk Dunne did the hooking act, while Capt. Cook strung them on the wire. This is our first snake story of the season, and it is a true one.Editors Note: Joe Taylor says that the above items is correct in every detail but one, and that is that the total number of snakes and the number killed should be multiplied by 5.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!
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