“I glanced hastily over my shoulder and saw a disjointed mass. I then knew that I had killed the reptile. On arriving home I put my safety in its usual place.
“The next morning I wished to use it to take my usual exercise. On bringing it before the light I found the luster of the tubing faded away, and in its place there was a dark, dull, blue color overspreading my once magnificent and shining wheel. Since then the pneumatic tire has decayed so that I had to have it completely overhauled. The cause of the complete dilapidation of my prided wheel is that the snake in its rage sank its poisonous fangs in the tire, thus causing the poison to spread all over the cycle.
“On going back to the scene of the combat a fewdays later I found the dried bones of my antagonist and 24 large rattles, the snake measuring exactly 8 feet and ½ Inches.”—Millen Herald.
From— The Hawaiian Star. (Honolulu [Oahu]), 11 Nov. 1893. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
