Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-22
no BE CONTINUED.
FLORIDA RATTLEsNAKEs.
a NOrtherner's Experience on the In
dian River

a NOrtherner's Experience ON the In
dian River.
A Northern tourist thus describes the
Indian river country in Florida, and gives
| description of dramatic incident in a
letter to the New York Tribune: Think OF
finally landing where you walk to the
| house through laden orange trees. Clus-
tiers OF bananas show their yellow sides to
you as you step on shore. Great palms
read their umbrella tops above your
head, and mOss-hung oaks wag their
boards at you in welcome. 1t is warm,
but not hOt-yOur overcoat is slowed
| away with the travelling rugs-and a
breeze from the ocean beach, distant only
| three miles or so, braces you up and re-
minds you that it is dinner time. Green
peas, new potatoes, ard turnlps, tomatoes,
radlshes and crisp lettuce-nOt canned
nor from Long Island lighthouses these,
but fresh from the garden. For
dessert, guavas, sliced aud floating
cOOlly in their own red juices-a
com 9lnatiOn OF strawDerry, peach and
pineapple, all in the one fruit. After
dinner You lie in a hammock and smoke
cigar-nOt the fragrant weed which
your club affords, but one of "Ryder's'
three far a quarter-yet favored fairly
well by the surroundings. And little
more tan week ago you were shIvering
IN the street with arctics and Oyercoats
on, straddling registers indoors for
warmth. Can II be that YOU are still in
America? Yes, for Italy is colder, in the
South OF France YOU remember to have
encountered blizzard. But are there no
draw backs? Rattlesnakes? Our host
says he has lived on this place sixteen
years, and in that time seen but three
Yet the skin of one over seven feet long,
killed the week before, hangs on the piaZ-
"a. Aud next morning two Of the chill
dren, with Fan-my Gordon setter
in attendance, start for a run to the
river. Fan, who is a few feet in advance,
comes TO point. DOttie runs up to see
what Fan has found. There, not three
feet from the path, a big RATHER, that has
come cruising Out from among the cac-
tus, has Just cOiled ITSELF and now springs
its rattles. Dottie-little girl of eight
knows what that OminOus buzz means,
and calls: Come right away, Fanr' But
Fan, who can never be called of from a
point, whether it he on bird or a black
stump, stands stiff as a stake. And the
''dIamond-back" shakes her rattles with
redOubled vigOr-she might be girl just
home from boarding school with a fires
lot Of bangles. DOttie runs up and puts
her arms round the dogs neck to drag her
out of danger. But Fan, refusing TO be
dragged, begins to bark, while the snake
settles back her head with vicious
CLEAN of the bead-like eyes. And girl.
Gordon and GOTgon are all within q yard
of each other! Breaking a switch to en-
force obedience, Dot tugs away at the
dogs neck-nOw successfully; and fat
old Fan and plump little Dot together
run putting up the hill to meet
Que of the guests from the
house, who, Fastening down with
rife at the alarm, slips a bullet
through the snakes backbone, and soon
her scaly skin, side by side with her
mates, further adorns the piazza. Hear
ing the cries and the shots, and guessing
the cause, run my boat to the shore, but
there is nothing more to be done. The
snake is dead and lies limp and harmless
but horrible across the path. They have
just measured her. Six feet long she was,
with nine Tattles and button. And as
big round as a rolling pin! One puncture
from that long, evil-loOking fang would
mean death, and in less than twenty
minutes. Is it any wonder that hold my
little girl very close in my arms when
kiss her gOOd-nigh that mighty And that
several times before morning, starting in
an uneasy sleep, L wake with a shrek from
dream in which some horror Impends OF
which | nave but a confused rec election?
But mingling with it aud IN my ear is
that horrible ominous Dr-bT-br, that
muff1ed death jingle, which once heard is
never forgotten. Do you wonder, either,
If for some days after | step remarkably
high when l take the trail TOR Georgiana
or leave il and take TO the scrub for a
quail2 But we become familiar with
everything; one soon ceases to see a snake
in every root that twists across the path,
and 1 long since learned that there be
things among these grasses and moses
more terrible than rattlers-mOre to be
dreaded, at least. JOHN PAUL.