Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-15
NO. 39
A Pathetic UnselfIshness.


 I remember being taken by my mother when was child to see poor woman who was dying of a cancer. The disease was eat ing its way to @ vital part and her doctor had given her month as her utmost limit of life. She was preparing for her end in a way that seemed practical and prosaio enough, but that struck me as pathetic in it's eelf-forgetfulness. She was sitting up in bed, with basket beside her, finishing up the family mending, showing her eldest daughter-on whose thirteen-year-old shoulders the burden of household care was soon to fall-how to fell down seams in the little brothers knee patches and how to darn the heel of fathers sock TO that he would never feel the difference. She had impressed upon the girl how to make her fathers favorite potato pone, how to man. age her young sister when she got into the sulks, what to do for her father when he had his periodical fit of cramps-and everything else she could think of that would insure- comfort in the humble home she was learn ing. She had all the work planned which she would do during the short span of life that was given to her. Her burial clothes were folded away in 8 drawer with sweet basil leaves among them.
 I was reminded of the incident by reading in paper recently of 8 man in Milwaukee who is preparing for something that is even more terrible than death-insanity. He will be violently insane in a few weeks, and he knows its. Some time ago his Eskul was fractured; 8 gristle is fast forming about the cracked edges, which will surely press upon the brain and make him maniac. He talks calmly and nationally of his ap- preaching fate, and spends every moment of his brief term of sanity in making provision for his family when he shall no longer be able to care for them. It is 8 situation worthy the pen of novelist like Daudet.
 The Greatest RattIesnake Hunter Net.
 From The Albany Journal
 Isaac Davis, of North Bolton, the rattle snake hunter, whose history and exploits were first given to the world in "The Jour- nal" last September, has since that time add ed upward of 300 snakes to his score, mak- ing more than 1, 700 rattlesnakes he has killed since he commenced snake killing for the bounty of 25eents snake and two months wages year Cat $50 month) four years ago. One hundred and fifty of the falls catch were killed in three days on 8 new den which he discovered on the mountain west of Sabbath Day Point. These he killed as they were gathering on the den in October for their winters hibernation-75 the first day, 45 the second and 30 on the third.
 Davis says he lost considerable money the
 first year of his snake hunting by not know ing that there was a market for the skins and rattles as well as for the oil. The skins he sells at from 25 cents to $2 each ;, to be dressed into leather for ladies' belts, slippers, etc., and the rsttles are mounted as iewelry for pins, earrings and the like, and bring from 25 cents to $1 string The oil brings 25 cents per ounce, and 8 big fat snake will sometimes yield an ounce. The hunting season is in the spring as they are leaving the den, and in the autumn as they gather for winter. When they come out assemble in interwined groups of from three or four to fifteen, lying in the sun until they collect energy for their summers jaunt in pairs to breed. In the fall they come back, he says apparently in families, the old one with from 10 to 15 or 20 young ones a foot more in length.
 Davis is the only professional rattlesnake hunterin the world. He has been engaged by owners of summer cottages near Hague to hunt for @ month spring and fall next year, as he has for the past four yeats, at $50 month, and this pay, with the bounty and proceeds of the oil, skins and rattle, oc casional live snake sold, and income earned by showing and handling the reptiles al county fairs Fin Auguest and September makes him a respectable income. He de- ! votes his winters to reading, and now and then days work as a chopper.
 He says the snakes on his side of the lake are growing visibly scarcer, and thinks that l they can be ultimately exterminated. Davis very quietly admits the hazard of his occu- patton and coolly says he "presumes likely he will get bitten sometime and like enough die from the effects if blood vessel hap pens to be hit"