The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-07-30


Chin Snakes
.scH1prEn ON R1rTLEsNAKEs AHEAD OF ANY.
THING IN OLD VIRGINIA.
sASpusxY, ERtE COUNTY, OHIO,
sN.sD oe' July %, 1879.
To TIE Editor Of the Commercial u
SYopr daily Of yesterday asks for more
Information on srakeoloey. Well, SNAKES
In this section forty years ago were Iatnea
nIentiful, When cutting cedar-posSs, on
rrnnninpbau, island, now known rs heissy,s
island. torty-fiye years ago, the yellow rattle
anare ,rns very plenty. Using horse 10
draw the logs to the landing, they naa 70
wind hay.ropeS around the horses iegs W
treen the snakes from biting them. ABOUT
Sor,T rnars ago myself and two others went
ant killing snakes for fun, as the boys say.
The ground was covered VIII "eeus
and grass, interspersed with ciumps "a
brush and timber, about one mile anu nan
east OF :Ssadusky (ncw It is IN nne statE ,. o,
cnltfyation). In about I'VE hours we hilleu
ninety-tbree snakes and gave it up tnoush
there we're plenty Of snakes. Ehere Mere
only four poisonous snakes 10 tue lot kliiea:
feR poisonous snakes still i've IN paris VI
Erie county, only on rocky llmeslone i'u $50
and nrairie lands. On the Peninsula, Tour
,n;ies vest and north Of Sandusky, between
the bav and the lake, the land ~ rocky lime
stone ridges, with crevices and holes IN the
rocks. There the yellow rsttlesnakes still
live. and as they come out into the roads
and ,arm.felds they are killed by different
nersons. many of them being destroyed
every wear. On the farm OF Ed.
T,ockwood, three miles west OF Lake
side Camp Meeting Grounds, last week,
one of his farm hands was blowing corn 10
his field, when he saw two yellow rattle
snakes and killed them with his hoe, making
four killed on the place this summer. one
OF the two he killed was female, with duii
yellow rings around it, and was three ana
one.hali inches in diameter andsiXty inches
long. AS the man used up the head with
the hoe they cut it off, then skinned the bal
ance of the snake and stuffed it and TIED It
on O. piece OF siding, and it is now at
Durelhe e. Lindsey's warehouse and reed
store, in Sandusky, In charge OF EDWARD
Lockwood's brother. As | pass some OF
nv time at Durelhe IL Lindsey's warehouse,
I hear many comments on snakeoiosF. 40.
1 saws 10 the clerk in the warehouse: 81
have seen and killed many rattlesnakes
over in Ottawa county, but none so large
round as that one. The largest Killed had
TWENTY-FIVE rattles on, think, and was
ldESGE lllGU ills OlICs NV 81 tpiSh i""'N''
The color was 4 brighter yellow" His
friend says: 81 was moving over there on
a sidelng place, near the slashers. My
partner says: See yonder, the grass in
the swath moves that is young rabbit;
see me catch it, He pressed the grass down
suddenly on it and the snake ratified with
its tail. He left in hurry and killed him
with q fork. The snake had seven rattlcs
aud was three feet long. Brown" he says,
Ibid you ever see black watersnakc and
yellow rattlesnake tight?' "No," says
Brown. "WelI, 1 and Jim Brooks saw
them fight. They twisted and rolled over
one another in all shapes, the rattltsnake
getting the blacksnake's tail in its mouth
and was swallowing the blackSnake. when
we killed the rattlesnake and the Dlacksnake
ran off in a hurry" No. 9, a Peninsula
citizen, says: BAH! | was grading
wheat on Club Maps place, and right in
front OF me heard snake rattle. looked
down and 1t was nearly between my feet.
1t had gray rat in its mouth, and was try
ing to swallow it, but did not, for killed
it before it had time" The clerk, an old
man, said I" settled at the Plasterhead. on
the Peninsula, in the year 1918, and killed
thousands OF rattlesnakcs, and took out OF
some not as large as that stuffed one grown
gray squirrels. Don't you know about L
rattIesnakc being killed, four or five years
ago, west of Putin Bay that had four rats in
it, and had eighteen rattes on its tail 20.
The conversation then turned on snake
bites and the poison penetrating PERSONS
PANTS. They said it would penetrate cloth,
but not buckskin. The clerk knew young
man wearing buckskin pants. and rattle
snake, in attempting to strike him, got its
fangs fastened in the leg OF his pants. The
young man got scared and ran quarter Of
mile and jumped over fence. "Well,
did he get it out OF bis pants them" 81
don't know how the devil he got it out OF bis
pants.'' No. 3-three lake captains. Cap
tain Dayton had the floor: "When lived
| in Lorain county, shout three miles up the
Black river, rocky place, John Doll
caught q rattlesnake about two-thirds as.
large as that one (ponting to the stuffed
ontl, and John had it by the neck and
brought it into my house, told him to
take it out, as it scared my wife. He took
| it into the shed, tied cord around its neck,
and tied the cord to 4 beam. 1t would
draw itself up in all imaginable shapes, and
to catch hold OF the loops formed by its
loose eXtremities would lift man off the
| floor and at the same time draw him up to
the beam. The Captain killed the snake,
finally, and got a pint OF oil out Of It,"
Rattlesnake oil. in this section, seems to be
much sought after, as they say it possesses
great medical qualities. Mr.. Lockwood
saved the oil out of the one that is stuffed.
By-tne.by, that snake was killed near where
Joshua X. Giddines had fight with the
Indians in the year 1912, now owned By
Ramsdell, believe. A great many rattle
snakes were taken East about thirty-firc
years ago for what purpose I never learn
ed. They put them in barrels with wire
sleeves over them, their heads sticking up
like ninepins.
We arise from the Pullman couch after