Show 11 ap I 1 V T r j 4 4 71 g J pum T TT r zt k v I 1 SILAS SUGGS IS DEAD SNAKE CHARMING EVAN evangelist FATALLY BITTEN trw re preached the word ile he was W safe but when he accepted authy lae baere he be was W stung to death A remarkable hablo man aiau ILAS SUGGS miracle worker is 45 dead the big rattlesnake tle snake that had S i F so long refused to bite him struck at 1 last and in less V than an hour the re fe I 1 white haired old I 1 giant who had so often horrified the X throngs of people his strange doings drew around him by opening the jaws of that rattler with his thumbs was a dead man suggs claimed that he had a divine mission and proved it by passages out of the scriptures which clearly showed that no others but those called of god could immune ly handle rattlesnakes copper heads cottonmouths cotton mouths and water moc a silas suggs was 48 years ears old he was a failure as a farmer and tor sixteen years ears had made his living as a silversmith the peculiar religious phase of his character developed about five years ago when he evolved a sort of theology from the bible in which snakes and christianity seemed to bear about equal parts according to him christs mission on earth was to repeal that law which ordains enmity between mankind and the snake whose persuasion brought about the fall was very careful about his bis snakes they could bite him as much as they would but he miar labh handled them as though they the were glass and he was w as afraid of breaking breal drig them in the autumn he turned them loose among the rocks of illinois and he be said they always came back in the spring in his big deal box he carried a four toot foot rattlesnake rattles nahe three or tour four copper heads of various sizes a five toot foot cottonmouth ton mouth or highland moccasin several water moccasins and a puffing adder for several months this strange man had been going from town to town in southern illinois and western kentucky and tennessee preaching with a rude eloquence that wonderfully stirred the rustic sinners ranged around and afterwards performing miracles before the affrighted gaze of thousands his followers claimed that he per tormeS i miracles for how else could he plunge ll 11 his s ban arms into a big box of writh inc wriggling gling hissing snakes the most i n oat deadly known on the continent allow them to bite his hands and arms time and again and live and he did aid this and then demonstrated that the snakes had not been rendered innocuous by the removal of their fangs by letting them immediately afterwards bite chickens and dogs which speedily d died led then he would let the same snakes bite his hands bands and arms agam again but all this time suggs himself W was Is unable to frame an explanation of the big rattlers failure to bite just after his story was told in the journal in june this huge diamondback rattler was captured in the bay bottoms and on suggs return from nashville presented to him for miracle purposes suggs thrust his arm arin into the rattlers improvised den as nonchalantly as though reaching for the best rolled conestoga in a boband drew him forth remarking at the same time that unless his aizen works were in working order he need him inserting his thumb between the rattlers jaws suggs examined the venom glands dues and aid fangs with a careless air and then pitched his latest ophidian arrival arnal into the cracker box I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 1 I 1 1 I 1 SUGGS AWFUL DEATEL I 1 along with the others rut but unlike the others the diamond back refused to bite him falm even when scratched between the eyes with a spear of timothy a few days ago suggs was on his return home after I 1 an itinerary embracing the county fairs and fall sessions of circuit court in egypt he wore new store clothes and his pockets bulged with silver the offerings of the awe struck witnesses of his miracles just after a hearty dinner a score scare of his follow followers ers had bad gathered about the hotel porch and sl si las was urged to show what he could do with the snakes for one last time before he returned to his little lonely log cabin just over the pope county line what he did and what followed is only y what he be had done with impunity a hundred times before he opened the box and thrust in his bared arms the snakes coded and writhed about his arms he drew forth the wriggling hissing mass and let the snakes wind about his neck and hang across his shoulders the big rattled d nomore more than give a keener bu buzz anil th tiller whirr th annad ever before formed the note of 0 ala formidable rattled tu ind A 1049 alth his back an and d z yellow r 1 I 1 ow I 1 ads il clotell to the ia om M mantarro an A 3 AMZ 5 I 1 I 1 I 1 1 5 T 1 r ri g r 7 F 7 az 7 ltv ti az yr FV F V cX f J Z Ps S I 1 r I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 sum lifted his hands bands as if about to begin an exhortation the bis big rattler quick as lightning uncoiled and the poor old self deceived mentally evangelist just above the right eye suggs groaned staggered Btag gerod to a bench on the hotel porch a dottor doctor was quickly summoned a freshly killed billed chicken clapped to the rapidly swelling I 1 bitten part a quart of dourea I 1 nto into his mouth all in vain within an hour he be was dead his boxful of snakes escaped under the plank sidewalks and in the high weeda wee ds i that overgrew overgrow over grew the adjacent bacan vacant lota |