The Springdale news., 1889-09-20
TALK ABOUT REPTILES
True Tales Manufactured for tho
 Occasion.
Rattiesnakes do Not Cultivate the Ac- guaintauce of Garter Snakes-The Astounding Hypnotic Powers
 of Dead Serpent.

of a Dead Serpent.
 If you should happen to see a gar ter snake, one of the most innocent and harmless things that live, going along d road in one direction, and a rattlesnake. one of the deadliest of reptiles, travelling on the same road toward the garter snake, and one of those snakes had to turn out for the other, which one of them do you sup pose would keep the right of way?"
 Simon Kent, the snake professor of Clinton County, made that inquiry, and the reporter promptly replied:
 'The rattlesnal1e would insist on keeping the road, of course"
 "That's what every body thinks, y said Prof. Kent. 'and that's just where they are mistaken Now, instead of the rattlesnake keeping right on and the garter snake getting out of the way Of the terrible reptile, he will not only give the right of the way to the harmless snake but will do it in doube-duiet1 time. and slide off into the bushes and never stop until he gets to q safe place of hiding. But if instead of the garter snake it was a copperheard, or any other serpent as deadly as the rattIer himself, the rattIesnal5e would keep right on, and the two reptiles, each with poison enough in his jaws to kill three men. would pass one another quietly, or may be stop for a moment and have q little coniab together. One Of the funniest things in nature is that venomous snakes never fight with each other. and seem to have no particular grudge against any of the non-yenom- oas snakes But snakes that carry no poison at all, and have no more power to harm than lies in their capacity to capture their food. are aggressive and unrelenting enemies of the poison snakes, and the latter live in deadly terror of them. A rattlesnalle will go ten miles out of the way rather than meet garter snake, although the rat tier might be big enough to swallow 1t and it's whole family at one gulp.
 'The sight of blaeksnaIle simply throws a rattlcr or d copperhead into fits at once. He knows he will have to fight. and he knows that he is sure to get licked. But veuomous snakes will help one another in rows of this kind. When rattler sounds his cry of distress on his rattles every rattle snake and copperhead within hearing will hurry to his aid. One black snake, though. is moro than match for half a dozen rattlesnabes and cop perheads, for he is as much quicker than they are as a trotting horse is quicker than an OK team. l once saw a siX-foot black snake tackle big rattle snake and the rattler's signal brought four other rattlesnakes and three cop per heads to his aid from different di- reetions. But they might better have remained away, for it didn't take the blaeksnake more than six minutes to do the whole lot of them. He seemed to dive and dart in and out and around those rattling and hissing poison ped dlers like a zig-zag streak of lightning among some clouds It was just whizz, twist and crunch, and that was the end of d rattler or a copper head every time.
 The fight was so exciting that be- fore l knew it l had worked my way from hehind the bushes where l first saw the fight to within a couple of yards of the fighters, and when the black snake had finished the lot his eyes fell on me, and Interpreting my presence there to mean that 1 wanted a piece of the fight, too, he slid at me with the evident determination to do me up as he had the snakes. Before l could move he had himself wrapped around both of my legs, and was working his way upward with rapidity that would have put my windpipe at his disposal in five seconds more, but made grab and caught him around the neck with both hands. and closing on him with all my strength 1 choked Mr Snake $ tongue out till 1t hung down five inches and his eyes popped out on his cheeks. The blacksnake was glad enough to quit, but 1 held on to his throat until he was as dead as the snakes he had been having his picnic with.
 .He was the incest specimen but one that had ever captured of his kind. That one l gathered ina few minutes after killing the first one. was carrying my prize home, and in getting over stone wall happened to look back over my shoulder. About