Alpena Weekly Argus

Many years ago, when the writer was a small boy, a piece of woods and marsh along a little stream known as Woodruff's creek, in Brighton, Livingston county, Michigan, was invested with snakes of many species, both harmless and venomous.

One early June day while planting potatoes in a field adjoining this woods I discovered, beneath a clump of shrubs, a beautiful blue racer about 20 inches in length. Desiring to show the little thing to my mother, and having a ring upon my little finger, I tied a string to it, fastened the loose end by an easy bow-knot to one of the shrubs and then pushed the ring over the snake's head to its neck, which it fitted perfectly-the ring had been worked out of a silver 5-cent piece by my cousin and my initials cut upon it by him.

At noon, proceeding to my supposed wriggling prisoner, I found that it had disappeared, taking with it the string and the ring. The snake had evidently and cleverly seized the end of the string, pulled it, unloosened the knot and escaped to the woods.

Of course I did not care much about the snake, as I saw others of its kind every day, but I did feel sorry over the loss of my ring.

Six years afterwards, rambling through the same woods, gunning for rabbits, the sharp and peculiar barking of my dog quickly brought me to the foot of a small oak tree; looking up, imagine my astonishment to see coiled about its branches an immense blue racer, with a large silver band about its neck, and dangling from it a rope an inch thick and at least 10 feet in length. The dog caught the rope and tugging at it greatly annoyed and angered the reptile, with eyes glistening, tongue darting, and tail humming, its coils seemed to loosen and it appeared about ready to drop to the ground. Instantly realizing my personal peril, I placed my gun to my shoulder, took aim, pulled the trigger, and down tumbled the monster with its head full of shot.

Its writhings and death agonies were terrible to behold, even from the place to which I had hurriedly retreated as soon as the fatal shot was fired. The snake was dead in ten minutes. (I state the time precisely, because, considering the incident of great importance, I was careful to make a memorandum then and there from my watch.)

Always carrying a tape line I took its dimensions, and they were as follows: Length, 13 feet 3 inches; diameter of neck, 5 inches; of main part of body, 11 inches; distance between tips of jaws when fully extended, 19 inches

If astonished before, try to contemplate my amazement when, upon examination of the band about the reptile's neck, I found it to be solid silver and containing initials (although correspondingly larger) exactly the same as those placed upon the little snake's neck six years before, and the rope seemed to be of the same material as the string then used.

But my amazement was not to end here. A peculiar motion in the body of the dead monster attracted my attention, and then, happening to remember that in cases of danger snakelets run down the throat of their mother for security, I made a long cut in the belly part of the snake, when out ran seventeen small snakes about a foot in length, on the neck of each of which was a small ring containing the same characteristic initials, and attached to a little string precisely like that first referred to.

My dog soon dispatched this remarkable progeny, and, securing the rings and strings I returned to the old homestead well satisfied with my day's adventures. Surely:
Nature moves in a mysterious way
Its wonders to perform.

This great snake and the incidents preceeding and connected with its death constituted a sensation in the neighborhood and surrounding country the like of which has never since been experienced. I know it will be hard for some to believe that the foregoing is a truthful statement, but people of these days must not forget that some very strange things occurred in the pioneer times of Michigan.

In conclusion all I can say is that those who doubt the truthfulness of this narration of actual experience can be satisfied by inspection of the rings, rope and strings, now carefully preserved in my cabinet of curiosities at Detroit, Mich.-Francis Granger, in Detroit Journal,