of contempt for the snakes, but of respect for 

 them. We were surveying along the north line 

 of the land, on one of the traveled "lanes" — 

 I'oads in the North — when we came to a patch 

 of Jimson weeds, about waist high and cross- 

 ing the road either into this patch of weeds 

 or from it, was a snake track, which looked 

 like the maker of it might have been a snake 

 of goodly size, so as the Jine would have led 

 riglit through this weed patch, the surveyors 

 did not do a thing but measure over a couple 

 of rods, pass the obstruction and measure back 

 onto the line. Of course, I was interested in 

 the measurement of the land and I asked why 

 they did the side-stepping and then they told 

 me that they did not take any chances with 

 the snakes and advised me not to either. Wall, 

 this was a new idea to me and with my pre- 

 vious "jigger'' experience, which at this time 

 was causing me a great deal of trouble in get- 

 ting around, I rather thought that probably I 

 had better l^e a little careful of Mr. Snake. I 

 inquired as to the kinds of snakes I was liable 

 to meet up with and was told of the Cotton 

 mouth, a very poisonous reptile, whose mouth 

 looks like a ball of cotton, from whence it de- 

 rived its name; the Water Moccasin, also very 

 poisonous and an inhabitant of these or any 

 other swamps; the Spreading Adder, also poi- 

 sonous and lives mostly on uplands. We have 

 killed as high as six in one day in our wheat 

 fields; in fact, they were so thick in our up- 

 lands that we could not get our women folks 

 to cross the wheat fields until after the wheat 

 was cut. Tlien there are house snakes, chicken 

 snakes, garter snakes and many more too 

 numerous to mention. The boys and I became 

 so used to them that we killed and skinned 

 a great many and once when we had some 

 20 or 25 tacked up on one of the outbuildings, 

 Mrs. Studebaker and I were looking them over 

 and reinarked how, had we known the place 

 was as thick with snakes as it was, we never 

 would have owned it, it would either yet be 

 Mr. C. D. Matthews' or some other fellow's. 

 Now while our experience with the snakes was 

 more amusing than serious, yet tliat was not 

 true in all cases, for I know of some cases 

 where children were bitten that came near 

 causing death. 



I re-print herewith a couple of clippings from 

 newspapers of this community in regards to 

 some other people's experiences with snakes. • 

 (From the Sikeston Standard of May 31st, 1912) 



FARMER BITTEN IN HAND BY BIG SNAKE. 

 A. J. Davis Was Pulling Up Stump When Rep- 

 tile Jumped At Him and Held On. 



A. J. Davis, who farms three miles below 

 Sikeston on the New Madrid road, was bitten 

 in the right hand by a monster black snake 

 last Wednesday and for several days was un- 

 able to go about his work with usual alacrity. 

 The reptile held on to his hand as if he were 

 going to get a week's board at the time and 

 Davis had some difficulty in shaking him loose. 



The snake was lodged vinder a stump. Davis 

 was out in the field plowing and when he came 

 to the stump, which was old and rotten, he 

 thought to rid the field of the obstruction to 

 straight plowing and laid a hand to the task. 

 When he pulled the stump up slightly, the 

 snake darted out and made one lunge, grabbing 

 Davis's hand. 



Knowing that a black snake is not seriously 

 poisonous, Davis treated his hand with perox- 

 ide of hydrogen. His hand and arm swelled 

 somewhat and some pain followed the next day. 

 For its pains the snake was killed. 



A few days before Davis said he was driving 

 down the road with a team of mules when a 

 rattle snake over six feet long and as big around 

 as a fence post crawled across the road and 

 frightened his team until the mules ran away. 

 When he got them pulled down and hitched 

 and went back to look for the snake, it had 

 disappeared in the rye field of A. A. Ebert. 



Another little clipping from the Campbell 

 Citizen. 



"Will Kendall is our authority for this snake 

 story, sworn to by Bert Knotts and declared 

 true by several other witnesses. One morning 



last week Bert stepped out into his back yard 

 and immediately was attacked by rattle snakes. 



"He grabbed a hoe and chopped snakes for 

 nearly a half hour. When the battle was over 

 he counted 95 dead snakes. 



"Mr. Knotts lives in Bray addition to Camp- 

 bell, but is trying to get moved right away." 



We finished the surveying and for the next 

 two weeks I was busy trying to buy out the 

 renter and get possession of the farm and 

 naturally while in Sikeston, and not very well 

 acquainted, I staj'ed around the Land Com- 

 pany's office. On Wednesday, the 21st of July, 

 1909, Mr. Dover came in and we concluded a 

 deal for his corn and most of his farming im- 

 plements and stock and I was to have posses- 

 sion on the 15th of August. That evening Mr. 

 .Johns, the stenographer for the Land Company, 

 and I drove out into the East Swamp, about 

 5 miles east of Sikeston to see the water from 

 the Mississippi River, rushing like a mill race 

 down one of the dredge ditches and the people, 

 not only of that locality but of Sikeston as 

 well, who owned lands bordering on this ditch, 

 or, in fact, in this swamp, piling sand bags 

 on the banks of the ditch and in the low 

 places trying to confine the water to the ditch 

 and thereby save their growing corn. This 

 was a case where the levee at Price's Landing 

 gave way and it sure cost the farmers in the 

 low lands a plenty in the loss of their crops. 

 At this time I was told the water also overflowed 

 the rock levee at Cape Girardeau and came down 

 through Little River in the west swamp and 

 did considerable damage along Little River. 

 Sandy land, or rather sand land, plenty of water 

 and a good HOT sun' is what it takes to grow 

 watermelons and as this country has all of 

 these requirements, there is lots of melons 

 shipped from this country. Not being able to 

 start my farm work for near a month, Mr. J. 

 F. Cox and I purchased a car of melons for 

 $110 and I started for Indiana to peddle them 

 out and try and make a little of my expenses 

 while waiting to get possession of the farm 

 bought and make Mr. Cox a little money for 

 his investment. Took them to Frankfort, Ko- 

 komo, and Marion and finally closed out at my 

 home town of Bluffton, but made no money 

 as Georgia melons were ahead and besides I 

 found out that Missouri melons had a bad rep- 

 utation for being pulled too green. Visited at 

 home and helped start the packing for the trip 

 to Missouri, till August 8th, 1909, then off for 

 Missouri, and landed in Sikeston, August 9th, 

 1909, and on the way from Bird's Point, through 

 Charleston to Sikeston,- had a good opportunity 

 to see the crops that were destroyed by the 

 recent overflow of the Mississippi River and 

 the scalded corn fields was sure a sorry sight. 

 Then the next day, August the 10th, 1909, Mr. 

 James Smith, Sr.. of the Land Company, sug- 

 gested that we close up our real estate deal 

 and as I had paid down the required $2,000 

 when I signed the contract, I had no reason 

 to do otherwise, so in company with Mr. Smith, 

 We went to see Mr. C. D. Matthews, Sr., of 

 whom I purchased the land, and after intro- 

 ducing me to him, the land agents left me to 

 fight it out witli the old gentleman alone as 

 to deal. Now here coines in the one point that 

 I made mention of in the first of my write-up 

 and that was the necessity of having every- 

 thing down in writing and no verbal under- 

 standings, as I had about my not taking the 

 cemetery in as a part of the land. I told Mr. 

 Matthews that I did not want to take in the 

 cemetery as a part of tlie farm, that I could 

 not farm that, and, furthermore, it was under- 

 stood with the Land Company that it was to 

 be measured out. He told me that it would 

 have to go in as lands here always did trade 

 that way and that would have to go in. Now 

 had I have had it in the contract — written in 

 — I could have recovered for the cemetery, but 

 as it was I could not and, furthermore. I could 

 not afford to throw up the deal for the sake 

 of a half acre of land as I had bought out ^the 

 renter and the folks were packing up prep'ar- 

 atory to moving down and so I had to take 

 in the half acre of cemetery in the farm. Now 

 that cemetery was always there and afterwards 



