Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-07-12
HIS LAST RATTLESNAKE.

An affecting incident happened on
the Island of Martinique in the sum-
mer of 1S-. A fine athletic. negro
named Cola, belonging to a wealthy
planter, was desperately enamored Of
pretty mulatto lass named Juanita,
living ON the next plantation.
But Juanita was a coquette, and
cruel as coquettes generally are.
Having q tinge Of white blood in her
she looked down from an exalted
height on poor Cola, who was blacker
than the ink I am writing with. Still
Cola did not despair, but pressed his
suit on every opportunity.
At last Juanita, finding her lover SO
pertinacious that he must either be
finally rejected or accepted, told him
one day that she had passion for
rattlesnakes' tails; that she valued
them in proportion to their length F.; but
that as yet she had never been able to
get tail which consisted of twelve
rings.
Now, if he brought her tail with
twelve rings she would be his.
Gola's heart sank, but still he de-
termined to undertake this dangerous
task. What was there he would not
peril to gain Juanitae Day after day,
Cola, with a burning brand of pine
wood in one hand and short sab Der IN
the other, traversed the forests listen
ing for the ominous rafting of the
snakes.
In point of numbers his success was
prodigious, for there is no better
method for killing snakes than the one
Cola adopted-thrusting the burning
torch in his face; and, as he detests
fire, he is easily decapitated in the
moment of his confusion.
Nevertheless Cola could not find a
single tail with twelve rings on it. He
found some with eight or nine, and
one which had eleven; but when he
laid his last before Juanita she was
still inexorable, and declared that
even eleven and half would not con-
tent her.
At last, one day, when almost de-
spairing of success, Cola was crossing
an open space, his ear was caught by
particularly loud and sonorous
rattle,
He stopped and perceived an enor-
nous rattlesnake gliding toward him.
Its eyes were glowing with an intense
fire; its bifurcated tongue was agita-
ted with an uncomfortable rapidity Of
motion.
Cola felt that the hour had come
when he should win Juanita or perish.
The size and appearance of the
snake convinced him that it had
twelve or more rings in its head. and
he awaited its approach with a beat
ing heart.
The snake came gliding on, and
when within about three feet coiled
himself for a spring. Cola now seized
the opportunity, and dashirg his torch
in its face, severed the head from the
body with one blow
1t was with n throb Of delight that
he discovered on STOPPING down to ex-
anime his prize thirteen rings in the
snakes tail. While he was separating
them from the carcass he felt slight
prlcking sensation in his heel. Turn
ing round quickly he discovered to his
horror, that he had placed one Of his
his bare feet on the snakes head i'll
which the muscular action still contin-
ued, and that, all lifeless as it was, it
had bitten him.
Cola now knew that he was dead
man, and his sole object was to see
Juanita before he expired. Catching
up his prize, which he had purchased
with his life, he rushed across the
fields with the speed of despair,
Every moment he felt the poison
working more fatally in his veins, I'M
til at last swollen, breathless, speech
less, and frothing at the lips, he rush
ed into Juanita's presence. He could
no longer articulate, but holding out to
her the thirteen rattles in his swollen
hands and fixing ON her one last look
of devotion, he rolled ON the floor at
her feet, and after few gaps
breathed his last.
REV. Henry Ward Beecher preached
against the practice of cremation Sun
day. He said that 'the idea of the
resurrection of the body would
present a lasting objection to the pa
gan custom of burning the dead.
There might be sanitary reasons in
crowded populations, or reasons of
preference in favor of cremation, but