Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1885-11-07
A RAr1LEsnAkE HUNTER.
The Demand That 10 Supplied by . Peeu-
liar FrenchmAn.

The Demand That IL Supplied by . Pecu-
liar Frenchman.
A rather tall and decidedly thin man.
with prominent, hooked nose and
complexion like a cigar store Indian,
walked nervously up and down the
Union depot platform last night as he
waited for a train east. Though 1.-the
and active in his movement as boy,
he was evidently on the shady side OF
sixty. His stovepipe hat was triile
rusty, and his short gray side-whiskers
and mustache shone out from their old
copper backgrsbund like white cat sn
| a back yard fence.
"Are YOU Prof. j. Vesay." asked a
telegraph boy with message in his
hand.
II. am said the old gentleman as
he tore open the envelope and dis
missed the messenger.
There is an order which would
seem rather strange to most travelling
men," the old man said, turning to
Dispatch reporter.
The reporter took the message and
read as follows:
mo. Lila VINE STREET, NEW foRK.-Send
Ni'' ApOLPH KOBBE."
"Do you deal in snakes?" asked the
reporter. =
..Only in rattlesnakes." he replied.
| II have been engaged in catching and
selling them for the past twelve or fif-
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 q
| saloon or beer garden attraction, as
| guinea pigs arc here. Then there IS
| an old patent-medicine man III New
| York who buys great many OF me-
| He uses the skin for belts to cure rheu-
matism and suudry other diseases.
Buffalo patent-medicine man uses rat
| .lesnake oil as a specific in some dis
orders He buys his snakes Of me.
! Then / sell small lots now and then Tor
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
Booue. Logan and Mcdowell Coun
ties. About three hundred Of them
caught myself, and the others
bought"
How do YOU catch them2
-.-Un There nreF namuSr Sfts war
The most common way is to take up
forked stick and creep up to snak
summing himself. pin him down jus
back of the head, then with pair O
steel twcczers take out the fangs.
ALWAYS wear thick huckskin glov
and have stick w tn a little sponge a
tn. end. This ! saturate with chloro
form and then | have no trouble.
You say you buy some of them:
YES. The natives viii catch then
for fifty cents and one dollar apiece
! sell them for considerable more, ant
rather buy them than catch them my
self
Were YOU ever bitten by rattler?'
..Ncyer but once. and that dIdn'
amount to much. as l cauterized tn
wound at once. Though the venom o
A rattlesnake is very poisonous. the
are cowardly, and will always getawa
if they can. Then they always war;
Won before they strike, so with prope
care vou are not very liable to ge
bitten.
Where are your snakes?'
II have two hundred and fifty O
them in trunks in the express car. AM
The remainder are at Wheeling. hav
a metal trunk especially prepared TO
carving them and can take them fror
here 10 New York or even across tn
Atlantic without trouble.
Prof. Jules Nesay is Frenchmar
he saws. and has caught snakes o
every continent. but finds more none
in hunting rattlcsnakes in Pennsylvan'
and West Virginia than any othe
branch of this somewhat pecula
, trade i PinsbUrgh DtSI dtch.