Show comments from dixie by E A DAVIS cleveland tenn violent zeal even for truth has a hundred to one odds to be either petulancy ambition or pride swift mrs yost of savannah tennessee and a member of a snake handling religious cult died yesterday from wounds on both hands received while handling a vicious rattler it took tw teelie eli e hours for the deadly poison to snap the silver cord twelve im gering agonizing hours during which to the last gasp she refused medical aid snake handling sects apparently originated circa 1909 in grasshopper valley along the banks of the ten bessee river about thirty five mile i from chattanooga one george hensley who mci dently died of snakebite snake bite last summer in florid has the dubious honor of being the founding forefather up until recent times these cults flourished unshed flo copious ly especially in eastern tennessee but the death rate became so high amongst the handlers the state passed a law aimed to curb these un usual sects while not actually barring such ceremonies it prohibits handling snakes when the lives of others are endangered their bais for testing faith by venom is taken from the biblical passage fo rd pd in mark 16 1 1718 and these sio is shall follow them that behave V it q 3 sha take up se r a A here we have a situation with ramifications requiring the wisdom of a solomon to resolve on the one hand religious freedom and the free exercise thereof must be properly defined albeit snake handling is a strange product growing on such a lovely tree and the line of demarca tion established where liberty be comes license and discrimination oui legislators could have ridden roig shod passing a law that would have jailed every man woman and child that under the guise of religion handed or even attempted to handle poisonous reptiles in any assem blag religious or no but being ot of the system of fredom and justice for all they give the matter serious incisive sincere consideration and unbiased thought deciding to taa the middle of the road and s i f both sides of the equation the pun pon ciple of E 1 f t I 1 liberty is not infringed upon and yet the public is afforded protection I 1 nc i c e ai aie e so many bad examples of public service from our elected officials we sometimes fail to see these exemplary acts of noble object given ane opportunity even though rarely let us acclaim enthus laati cally this unselfish attitude who krows mayhap it will beget other acts perfect idom hati hat i four parts HZ viz wisdom 1 ane principle of doing things ang alig t justice the principle f doig t t ligi i equally in public and private fai fortitude the P pun ciple of rot flying danger but meeting it aid temperance the principle of subduing 0 desires and living 21 ly V plato |