The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-10-16
An Arizona RattIesnake Story.

But the best snake story Is told by
Hank Pulsifer, known otherwise as
s.Rattler HANK on account of his
thousand and one adventures with rat
tlesnakes. Hank has been bitten four
times, and attributes his continued exist
ence to the fact that he always packs
plenty of whiskey with him. He has killed
400 rattlesnakes in the last two years,
to say nothing of the hundreds he had
rot away with before that time and OF
which he never kept a record. 1t Is the
old mans delight to bask in the smiles
of his cronies, and you may see him at
any time, when he is not out prospect
inc the neighboring hills for gold or
silver, sitting in Bill Briggs cabin,
comfortably loaded with tanglefoot and
detailing his adventures. He was in
Florence in August on a big spree.
When he gets pretty badly fuddled he
tells his biggest yarns. 1t was my good
fortune to hear one of them. "BOys,"
he asked "did you see that Greaser in
town yesterday with the tarantulas?
recken you amt seed no bigger tarantu-
las than them critters. l give 'em to
him; ketched 'em out near the Alvarado
mine; they was havin' party like with
a hull bilin' o. rattlers. l never seed no
such rattlers vet. Hank was leading
up to his story. One who knew him at
once ordered the benzine for the crowd.
| amt seed no such rattlers as them"
he continued, setting down his empty
glass. "There was forty hundred II
there was one, and rangin' all the way
from two to ten foot in length. And
such an ALFRED hissin' and a wrigglin'
and bowin' and a scrapin' to one
mother as polite as you please,
and Mr.. Snake crawlin around
Mrs. Snake, and the young snakes a
tumblin' over their daddies and mamies
till you couldn't rest. What did | doP
| reckon | kinder didn't do nothin' but
keep shady. But blasted jack rabbit
run across the bush Just behind me, an
l bein' kind o. hungry like, let him have
it. The noise O. the gun goin' off start
ed the snakes, and they saw me quicker
N a second, an jess stood on their hind
legs and roared to get at the old man.
There war pile o rocks hemmin' me
in on all sides 'cept one. | had jest
come over them rocks a slidin' down,
but couldn't get back. There was only
one way out, and that was right through
the snakes! And there was forty hun
dred of 'em as sure as --. They saw
they had me, and had already divided
me up like, an standin there loOkin'
at 'em with my eyes stickin' ont and the
sweat a pourin' on me like rain, an they
kept comm an a-openin' their jaws
an a-lickin' o. their chops as much as to
say, Ole man, yer our meat Well, l
vanked a rock an driv it. into EN-, an
before they got over their surprise I'd
drunk all the bug juice in my canteen
an made Il break. More'n five hum
dred of 'em must struck me as | skin
ned through the gauntlet. But l had a
par o buckskin breaches over my but
ternuts an the - fools couldn't bite
through. So | hoofed it over the per-
rarie for more'n half mile, COS didn't
ar to stop second or they would a
got loose an struck me on the hand.
As it was, they KEEP a-stringin' out be-
hind me like so many tails. But you
couldn't seen 'em for the dust. You
hear me!n
Hanks listeners were setting in open
mOuthed wonder taking in the story as
he spun it out, and they were eagerly
awaiting the climax. Sagebrush Char
lie spoke up: "Look yere, Hank, you
say there was five hundred snakes
hitched on to your britches?"
Yes, five hundred nary one less"
"Well, how much you reckOned each
critter would average - about three
pounds, / reckon?"
W-a-l-l!'
"Why, On'y this; you war packin'
fifteen hundred pounds O. snakes. Per-
haps you will take tumble to yourself
and kinder explain how you could pack
so many critters"
Look here, Charlie; you're pretty
squar kind of a boy, and pOOty good on
figgers and arithmetickin, an that kind
o. truck, an l don't mind sayin' to you
that fifteen hundred pounds o. snakes
tackled into man when he is scarf
when he is right down scar't-dOn't
weigh more'n ordinary shotgun. You
nigh stop to weigh 'em. didn't have
no time
Charlie was effectually silenced.
oval, as | was saying, boys" Hank
continued, "the varmints KEEP a swish
in in the air an | goin' forty miles a
minute L seed there was only one way
to get rid of 'em, an | yanked out my
knife an commenced chopin their
tails off close up to their ears. By the
time l rived at Moss's ranch they had
all been cut away, but their heads was
still stickin' by the fangs to my buck
skins Boys, it war a lively canter while
it lasted"
Glow many heads was their stick
in onto your buckskins, Hank?' Charlie
asked.
Lem me see; lem me see," Hank
answered. 81 declare fOrgit. Reub,
1 told you the other day how many
snakes heads there was hanging to
my buckskins that day. Do you rex
lect?''
81 reckon it was four hundred and
ninety-seven.'
Four-hundred- and-ninety -sev-
en-. Yes, yes: l said five hundred,
didn't l, boys? take it back, it was
four hundred and ninety-seven but what
in - is three snakes in such outfit? ''
Then the glasses were filed up again.
-Ariz0nd Letter to Ne1C York Sun.