Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-07-25
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Ad-
ventures Which Show That Truth
is Stranger Than Fiction.

"OUT of thousand people bitten by
rattlesnakes / do not think a dozen re-
cover" said Editor j. H. Estill, of Sa-
yannah "There is no known cure, in
spite of the fact that many people have
said that they were cured by whiskey.
You may depend on it, that when man
says he was cured of rattlesnake bite,
though not necessarily a liar, he is at
least laboring under a misapprehension
of the facts. There is a small snake
similar to the rattlesnake IN appearance,
whose poison is not SO venomous, and
negroes bitten by it place lime upon the
spot or else drink enough whiskey to
counteract the poison. Whiskey, II
taken in large quantity, goes directly
into the blood and counteracts the poi
son of the snake. But the regular
Georgia RATHER, from five to seven feet
in length, is deadly customer to meet.
1t does not give any warning, but strikes
the moment it is disturbed, and it can
strike an object as far distant as 1t Is
long. A friend of mine was riding
along in the saddle one day when a big
RATHER lying in the road leaped at him
as he passed. 1t closed to his bootleg,
driving one of its fangs clear through
the thick leather of his boot and through
his trousers, Just escaping the flesh. 1t
required considerable kicking to shake
that snake off, and when he was finally
got Id of he started in pursuit. My
friend faced bullets in the army with
nonchalance, but his hair stood on end
when he saw that snake coming, and
he jammed spurs to his nag and didn't
stop until he had gone quarter stretch.
My plantation is full of rattlesnakes,
and only last week my hands killed
twenty-six in field of twenty acres.
GONE of the greatest terrors in the
oil regions" says an old-time oil opera
tor, lis the man with-the. lantern. He
has been the cause OF more needless con
hagrations among oil wells than any
other thing, and has cost the region
millions of dollars. He is usually an
employee about the wells, and nine cases
out of ten a man of experience and in
telligence, but he will persist in taking
the chances in paying visit now and
then to some -enveloped tank, carry
ing his lighted lantern with him. The
result isn't always disastrous, but that
ism t the fault of the man with the Ian
tern. Usually an explosion results. II
destructive fire does not follow the ex-
plosion the fact will be without prece
dent. Sometimes the cause of a fire of
this kind viii not be- quite certain at
first, but it only needs roll call of the
employees of that particular property |
and the taking of an account Of the tool
house stock to ascertain the eau e.
There will be one employee short, and
the number of the lan.ern will be less
by one. Then it is known that the man /
with the lantern has been walking. He
always disappears on occasions of this !
kind, and instances are rare when even
a piece of his ear is ever found. But he I
is not dead. The man with the lantern |
never dies in the oil regions. He viii !
be sure to walk again not long after he
has disappeared, and will continue to
walk at disastrous intervals as long as
oil wells last