Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-11-08
4 ltattlrsnnkr liuutrr.

A rather tall aud decidedly thin man,
with a prominent, hooked nose and a
complexion like that of clgar-stOro
Indian, walked ncryouSly up and down
the Union depot platform last night rs
he waited for train east, Though
1.-the aud active in his movements rs "A
boy, he was evidently on the shady
side of 60. His stOycpipc hat was u
trine rusty, and his short gray side
whiskcrs and mustache shonc out from
their old copper background like u
white cat on backward fence.
Are YOU Prof j. Nesay9' asked a
telegraph boy, with message in his
hand.
Il am" said the old gentleman, "a
he tore open the envelope and dis
missed the messenger.
This is An order which would seem
rather strange to most travelling men,
the old man said, turning to u DiSpdtch
reporter
The reporter took tho message and
read as follows:
"No. Liza VINE SrEET New YoRK.
Send me fifty rattlesnakes at once.
Large.
ADOLru KOBBE
"Do you deal in snakcsP" asked tho
reporter.
only in rattlesuakcs, he replied.
Il have been engaged in catching and
selling them for the past twelve or tif-
teen years"
Where do you find customers?"
well, | sell numbers Of them to this
man kobbe. who sends them to Ger
many and other European countries,
where they are kept in glass cages as u
saloon or beer-garden attraction, Us
guinea pigs are here. Then there is an
old patent-medicne man in New York
who buys great many of me. He
uses the skin for belts TO cure rhcu-
matism and sundry other diseases.
A Buffalo patent-medlcine man uses
rattlesnake oil US specific in some
disorders. He buys his snakes of me.
Then sell small lots now and then for
museum attractions and other things
have sold eight hundred this season
and have about as many more.
where do you get them?'
Most of those that | have handled
this year are from West Virginia,
Boone, Logan, and Mcdowell counties.
About three hundred of them ! caught
myself, and the others | bought.
"How do you catch them?'
''Oh, there are number Of ways.
The most common way is to take up
forked stick and creep up to snake
summing himself, pin HIM down just
back of the head, then with pair of
steel tweczers take out the fangs.
always wear thick buckskin glove
and have a stick with little sponge at
the end. This saturate with chiolo-
form, and then have no trouble"
you say you buy some of thcm?'
YES. The natives will catch them
for 30 cents to - apiece. | sell them
for considerable more, and rather
buy them than catch them myself"
Were you ever bitten by rather"
Never but once, and that didn't
amount to much, as cauterizcd the
wound at once. Though The venom OF
a rattlesnake is very poisonous, they
are cowardly, and will always get
away if they can. Then they always
warn YOU before they strike, 50 with
proper care you are not very liable to
get bitten.
Where are your snakcs?'
Il have 2jO OF them III trunks in the
express car, and the remainder are at
Wheeling. have a metal trunk es-
pecially prepared for carrying them
and can take them from here TO New
York or even across the Atlantic with
out trouble"
Prof Jules Vesay is Frenchmau.
he says, and has caught snakes on
every continent, but finds more money
in hunting rattlesnakcs in PennsyIva-
MIA and West Virginia than any other
branch of this somewhat peculiar
trade. .- IHlSJUry DSgutch.