California Snakes

The eastern boom. I mean the boom made bj' eastern people with money, has started up some of the old dead industries of California. With the easy progress of civilization the good old industry of lying had almost died out. It got discouraged, and so many wonderf ui things had happened elsewhere that it was hard for the Californian imagination to meet the necessities. It was easier to give up lying to strangers altogether, for even the most untraveled easterner could ring the bell on the California guide or stage driver. These gentry are now awakening from their lethargy and beginning to make the Yosemite and other trips lively. A friend of mine from the east has just come back from the Yosemite and he relates his experience. The stage driver found out that he was seriously afraid of snakes and immediately proceeded to make his hair stand on end. "Venomous reptiles? You bet. I don't know what reptiles is, but them snakes, you can just bet your Ufe, is venomous. Why, one day I was acomin' down here drivin' a wagon, when I catches sight of a snake in the brush, all ready for a spring. My horses starts an' I whips 'em up fast to clear the snake, don't you see, afore he could spring. He makes one clear spring, the snake does, an' he misses the horses." "That was lucky - but you - you" "Lucky ! You bet your lif e it was lucky. He missed the horses, the snake did, but he stock his fangs clean through the wagon." !' You don't say!" "I do say, and mebbe you won't believe it; but it's a fact. He stuck his fangs clean through that wagon, an' it swelled up so bad that we had to leave it by the wayside