THE COLUMBUS COMMERCIAL — NOVEMBER 3, 1912
DEVOURS PIGS AND MILKS THE COWS ◇ (Whopper of a Snake Story Told by Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Man.) ◇ FASTER THAN HORSE ◇ New Story Brought to Philadelphia by Huckleberry Man from the Mountains of
Keystone State Shows Snake Bite Medicine Still Powerful.
Philadelphia, Pa.—It was a whopper! No, not the story, but the snake. It was part of the narrative of a Lycoming county huckleberry contractor who employs an army of pickers. He was here to place a consignment of the sylvan fruit with a Philadelphia produce merchant.
“Up in the Alleghenies,” he said, “they are telling snake stories. The snake is prominent now because of the huckleberry season. The berries grow only on the high mountainside or snake zone and their harvesting is attended with actual danger. There is no place so snug as a huckleberry bush for a snake to hide under and as sure as a hand is thrust beneath the foliage sheltering a copperhead it will receive a hypodermic injection of green venom that will harass the owner for a lifetime.
“The berry-picking season is a time of adventure and of braving the rattler in his den, and therefore the flood of snake stories.
“Everybody at the postoffice in my village, where the farmers gather in the evening, was talking about a huge black snake that makes a sequestered outlying farm its headquarters. The reptile was first seen on the farm five years ago and since then it has made its appearance with increased length and girth every summer. The farmer is a
