The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-07-22
"RATTLESNAKE JIM..
A Curious Character and the Business He
Pursues.

Everybody in Wayne county knows
'Rattlesnake Jim"-at least every per-
son in the southwestern part of the
county is conscious of the fact that
there is such person in existence,
writes a Wooster. o., correspondent of
the Cincinnati Enquirer. To many he
Is known as James jeffrey, lawyer.
Until recently he was a practitioner at
the Wayne county bar, but abandoning
the legal profession he sought a home
on stretch of prairie In the south
western part of the county. where. with
his family, he has resided for some
years. The sobriquet of "Rattlesnake
JIM was attached to him on account
OF his propensity for capturing rattle
snakes. The surroundings of his home
gave him full sway in that inclination,
as he has invaded the home of the rat
tiers. For three years past he has been
catching rattleSnakeS for yarious parties,
sad upward Of several hundreds of rep
ties have been captured by him in that
time. The reptiles are the prairie rat
tlesnaheS, or rmassasauges, a very poison
Gus reptile His mode of securing them
is to worry the snake with cane or
stick until his snakeship becomes cow
ed, which be asserts will be in very
short time, and then pick him up, and
he will be as harmless as kitten. He
claims that snakes form the acquaint-
ance of persons the same as any other
animal. From experience he has
learned that the snakes make their ap-
pearance some time in May, and then
disappear in August, lying dormant for
nine months. A snake will not receive
rattles until two years old. He relates
that he had frequently heard that snakes
would swallow their young when danger
threatened, but always was suspicious
OF the statement until he saw the state
ment verified. He encountered an old
female garter-snake with lot of young
ones one day. He approached the
snakes, and the old female opened her
mouth, into which the young ones
glided with lightning rapidity. He
killed the old snake and found twelve
young ones inside of her. According
TO his statement a snake would be a
paying boarder, as one frog is sufficient
food for year. Jeffrey strongly ad-
vances the claim that snakc-catching is
a gift possessed by persons with suffi-
cient magnetism in them to make the
reptiles apparently powerless. A s.
yoaT-old daughter of Jeffrey's possesses
that magnetism TO a superlative degree,
for she handles live snakes, and likes to
play with them, and never was bitten.
Sae takes snapping-turtle and presses
her check to the turtles nose, and does
not suffer any injury. Jeffrey holds
that the only reliable cure for a rattle
suake-bite is turpentine. a bottle of
turpentine held against the bite, the
mouth of the bottle over the bite, against
which the turpentine is allowed to
touch, will draw out the poison, which
is noticeable as it comes out, making a
sort of blue flame. in the turpentine.
Although Jeffrey has never been bitten
he has tested this cure on dogs struck
b. the fangs of rattlesnakes, and found
IL lu5adlible IN every instance. Some
days ago Jeffrey came to Wooster, and
dropping into a restaurant laid large
male rattler Cthe males are black and
the females black and yellow, spotted)
on the floor A skirmish among the
occupants of the room occurred, and
since then his presence anywhere causes
an uneasiness among persons near him,
as they expect to see a snake crawl out
of his pocket.