Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1885-12-03
A Thrilling Adventure.
DRIVEN MAD BY AsNAKE's BITE.

DRIVEN MAD BY SNAKES BITE.
It was July morning. opened my
eyes after an all-night's sleep, and smelt
rattlesnake.
I had been sleeping on the open
prairie, rolled in my blanket. It may be
a trick of all who have lived for any
length of time on the plains to wake up
without movement of hand OF foot.
As I lay on my back, eyes wide open, I
saw that it was not yet sunrise. My
horse, turned loose the night before to
shift for himself, was grazing few yards
away.
Faughl Nothing so disgusts as the
scent of a rattlesnake. He must be close
to me to give out such powerful odor !
began to reason and to plan. My
blanket was tightly wrapped around me,
and the reptile coulnn't have crawled in.
He must be curled up alongside Of my
body. On which side? The scent came
strongest from the left. In five minutes
Ihad settled it that he was curled up
between my left arm, which was lying
fat on the grass. and my body.
Well9 Let me tell you that a prairie
rattlesnake is no toy to play with. He
can coil quicker than flash oflightning.
He can dart and strike while you draw q
single breath. He never runs away to
avoid fight. There wasn't one chance
in ten thousand for me to get out of that
scrape scot free.
lay there as quiet as death, hoping
the reptile might wake up and make off.
when / heard the footsteps of my horse.
We had been companions for five years.
o acted as my sentinel through the
night and at sunrise each morning, when
abroad on an expedition, he came to
rouse me up.
Crunchl crunchl crunchI It was his
footsteps in the thick grass. The sun
was just rising. The snake would be
disturbed? What thenl
The snake was disturbed! Before the
horse was within FIVE feet of me he
scented the rattler and halted. and ut
tered several snorts of alarm. was
right as to the location of the reptile. l
felt him as he Strengthened out and
coiled for spring, and the odor became
so nauseating that it required all my self
control to remain quiet.
The horse seemed fully to realize nv
peril. He backed off, as though to draw
the snake away, but the venomous ras-
cal was comfortable and wouldn't 90.
Then the horse began to circle around
me, and the rattler lifted his head and
kept turning it to follow The splendid
animals movements. This action brought
him within my range of vision. Indeed.
his head wasn't more than foot away.
Round and round went the horse, and
when he failed to draw the snake he
tried still another plan. He came as
near as safety would permit, and began
to tease the reptile. He would
paw and snort and clash his
teeth, and at length the
rattler crawled right over my breast as
If to pursue him. heard the horse re-
treating, and naturally reasoned that the
snake was well out OF reach of me.
Drawing long breath, I whirled over
and sprang to my feet, but at my very
first movement felta sting in my right
wrist, and gained my feet only to find
the snake coiled for another dart. He
had not left me to pursue the horse.
Had been bitten? l feared so, but
hoped not. There was red spot on the
wrist, and drop of blood oozed out as
! held it up While|the snake wriggled
of. defiant to the last. 1 watched the
wound. In two minutes l felt certain
that ! had received his rangs. Holding
the wrist to my lips ! sucked the wound
until it seemed as if all the poison must
have been extracted, and then bound q
chew of tobacco on the spot. I had
neither whisky nor other remedy, and
felt that it was fortunate the snake
struck me where | could get at the
wound. As for my whereabouts, had
pushed through the South pass of the
Wind River mountains, left the foot of
the hills behind, ard was near the South
forkof the Cheyenne river, on my way
to the Black Hills.
| ate a cold bite for breakfast. and
had begun saddling my horse before I
felt any i'll effects from the bite. Then
feeling of exaltation came over me. I
wanted to scream and whoop, and
dance. 1t was as if l had come across a
large nugget Of gold. or had become
two thirds drunk on spirits, / couldn't
hold myself. I shouted, whooped, and
jumped about until the horse looked at
me in astonishment. / shook my fist at
imaginary foes and screamed out:
"Come on, with youl I can whip the
dozen of you Id five minutes If can't
lick every redskin between here and the
Pass then ! want to be called squawl''
The spirit of bravado passed away, and
/ became a martyr. The whole world
was down on me, and nobody would give
me show. I sobbed and cried like
woman, and had some thoughts of sui
eide. By and BY, while was yet crying,
it began to grow dark, and wrapped
my blanket around me and lay down to
sleep. remember that my horse rubbed
my face with his nose, and with his teeth