The Springdale news., 1889-09-20

snake was coming for me and no nis-
 take. l hadn't much time to think,
 but what thinking 1 did was to the point. threw the dead snake over
 the fence and grabbed stone. When
 the pursuing snake came to the body of it's dead mate it stopped and passed slowly around it. When it offered a
 favorable mark l hurled the stone at it. My aim was good. The stone landed on the snakes head and pinned it fast to the ground. 1 jumped down and ran my knife to the hilt in the snakes neck, and that ended him. The second measured over eight feet.
 '1 thought that was the boss black snake, but that same summer there was one killed on the Black Forest road, in Potter County, that measured fourteen feet No man killed it. though. The snake actually came out of the woods and tried to capture mule that one of the tannery men was driving. The man jumped out of the wagon and ran away at sight of the snake. He met three men, and they went back with him. The mule stood i'll the road where the man had left him. The snake lay in pile at one side of the road. His head was smashed and his back was broken. There were some big ridges on the mule, showing that the snake had suc- ceeded in getting few coils around l l,i t,t,t q I to kill the snake nobody knew. There Was blood on ono of the mules hind feet and blood on his bit indicating that he had in some way brought his mouth to the aid of his trustY heel. and the snake had to go That snake was taken to Goudersport. As soon as 1 heard of it went there post haste, determined to secure the big black snake, but they told me l had arrived too late IS the body had been sent to the Smithsonian Institution They should have sent the mule with it. by rights.
 "0ne reason why rattfesna1es get more plentiful every year is the thin hing out of deer from the woods. 4 blacksnalze, IS much as he hates rat tlesnaL1es. don't hate them q bit more than the deer does. Deer will hunt snakes as persistently as dog will hunt birds When deer once gets his eye on q rattler that rattler's fate is sealed. The deer waits until the snake coils to strike. and then rises on his hind feet and strikes the snake with his sharp fore feet, killing 1t instantly. After killing the snake, if there are no more at hand requiring his attention, the deer will cut 1t 10 pieces with his hoofs. In the fail of the year. when the snakes are returning 10 their dens. and i'll the spring when they are com ing out, deer visit the dens and kill rattlers by the score. In this way, when they were pie nty they undoubt- edly kept #she rattlesnake population down by thousands every year Old hunters say that even if rattlesnakes succeed in biting deer the poison has no effect upon them. l guess that it is a mistake. l came across big buck, | Clinton County. His body was greatly swollen. at first supposed that the deer had been wounded by hunter and had escaped the dogs and died without being discovered, but look ing closer, l saw a rattlesnake's fang in one of his nostrils, fast in the flesh The deer had undoubtedly attacked a rattlesnale, and the latter had struck him in the nose. The deer, jerking his head suddenly back, had torn the fang from the snakes jaw. The deer had died of the poison.
 "A good many people don't believe a snake can charm things, but l tell you it can, and l go so far as to say that it don't make any difference whether the snake is dead or alive When a dead snake can charm goose, I'd like to know what there is that live one can't eharm2 l had flock of six or seven geese, and they were about the next thing to wild, for l couldn't get within q gunshot of them One day l was going through lot near my house, and l noticed one of my geese standing with its neck stretched out at full length, and is wings raised away from its body, gazing intentIy at some thing on the ground.
 "The rest of the geese were feeding some distance away. 1 walked toward the goose, and got close enough to touch it, and il never noticed my pres ence. The goose's eyes were distend- ed, and glittered like fire. l looked at the spot upon which the big bird was gazing so intenay, and discovered a spotted snake of very decided coloring. I don't know what kind of snake it was, for l never saw one like it before or since. The goose didn't move when l touched it, and l picked it up and carried i: away three or four yards, when for the first 1t seemed to become aware of things around it. and began to squawk and kick. 1 dropped the goose, and it hurried to rei0in it's