The Springdale news., 1889-12-20
A MONSTER CROTALUS.
Scranton (Pa.) Mans Lucky Escape
 From Ills Eangs.

From Ills Fangs.
 Mr. A. C. Drinker, of this city, has been an enthusiastic student Of natural history since he was small boy in the beech woods Of Clifton fifty years ago. Il have had three very narrow escapes from being bitten by poison- ous snakes,n said Mir. Drinker the other evening. "and in each case it was different variety of reptile that came near giving me dose. One af- ternoon in August, a good many years ago. l was tramping along near the Burnt bridge with my rifle on my shoulder, when happened to see an immense blackberry bush. loaded down with dead ripe berries. It was up the bank little way. and l stood my gun up by a stump and went to the bush. The body of the bush was as thick as q good sized cone, and it lay within a few inches of the ground. l carefully reached my fingers around it and started to pull the bush toward mo slowly, when l felt something pushing and pulling on it. 1t startled me d good bit, and let go of the bush and watched. Something kept on shaking 1t, but what 1t was l couldn't tell. l was bound to find out, though. and after a little, l poked the leaves away with a stick and got at the mystery. The power that moved the bush was big ratt!esnake. His fangs were fast iy,t Inc. i,tA-# Ialf where my fingers were when he struck at me, and he had bunted and pulled til there wasn't q berry left on the bush. l didn't hear the least noise while l had my fingers on the bush. and l was certain that the old fellow didn't make his rattles buzz before he struck
 .'I wanted to have little fun with him before pounded the life out of him. and so let him hang there and hunted up q tough dead hemIocll limb. Then l went back and gently touched the snake on the head with the stick. pulling the bushes apart so that he could see me. That set him to rat ting and wriggIing to the top Of his strength, and l never saw q madder creature than he was while 1 teased him. His eyes blinked and his mouth was as red as fire. After awhile 1 pried him loose and put the end of my club where he could strike at it. He was good fighter, and lie drove his fangs at the stick five OF six times, hitting 1t within sixteenth of an inch of the same spot each time. By and by the rattler got tired of fighting the club and with his head and tail up he made for me.
 Just as he reached out, his head fattened. his mouth opened to it's widest extent, and the fangs in his fiery upper jaw eleamed. Then gave him a bat with the club that paralyzed him, killing him with another blow He had thirteen rattles and button and Was five feet long l brought him home and dissected him. and my sister has the rattles yet. The poison sacks at the roots of his fangs were not larger than small peas In each one there was d small drop of fluid that looked good deal like glycerine. There were four distinct growths of fangs on each side, one back of the other, so that when he shed one set there was another set to take it's place. The poison is ejected through very fine hole at the point of the fang. a hole no larger than that in the needle of a hypodermic syringe. 1 have dis SC ted many rattler since then, but l have never caught finer one than h. was. a-Scranton (Pa.) Cor. N. Y sun.