The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-08-22
RArrLEsNAKE PETE.
A Citizen of OIL City Who Likes Dsnsero"'
Pets-The Many Curious Facts That
Daily Association With Reptiles
Has Shown to be True.
lrrom ,he On civ RIizzard.l


The subject of the following sketch,
.RattlesnaIe Pete" who is now ~
years old, first began to catch ana
handle rattlesnakes about eight years ago.
and since then has caught hundreds OF
them and made them the subject OF all
kinds of experiments. He has been Bit
ten frequently by all other kinds OF snakes
found in this part of the country except
the RATHER and copperbead, but since the
first case has experienced no inconvcn..
icncc from their bites. From the skins OF
the rattcrs he has killed or otherwise Sc
cured he has made canes, belts, ties, slip
pers. fancy pocketbooks, etc, which have
gone TO all parts of the country and for
which, as we'll as for the oil of the reptiles,
the demand has been greater than the
supply. 49,.
section of the country-not including
those seen BY Franklin people-are about
u dozen in number, the principal OF these
being the rattler, the copperhead and tho
black snake. To these, and more partIc-
ularlv the RATHER, he has devoted most OF
his attention. From his experiments
with them he is prepared to prove that
number of magazine and scientific snake
articles have been considerably off. For
example il has been frequently stated
that the rattlcsnake will not eat in con-
fncment. An Indian from up the river
gave him the information that if he would
put sand or sod on the bottom of the
cages the rattlers would eat. He tried
the experiment successfully and says that
. 1n
eat it is probably because the bed OF their
cages is made of board or sawdust. The
longest he has known RATHER to 20
without eating is thirteen months, and
without eating or drinking ten months.
Another thing he has found to be in
correct is the statement and general
suppositon that the rattesnake has but
one fang on each side Of the jaw. He has
found and taken out from one to three
fangs on each side He has also found
erroneous the general supposition that
the rattlcsnake will never strike without
coling first, and has learned that it will
strike sdcwisc when stretched at full
length rs well as when coiled.
He has found the average length of the
Rocky Mountain rattlesnakc to be about
three and half feet, and the largest
string of rattles on one of them num-
bcrcd eighteen. The rattcsnakcs are the
most dangerous between the list of July
and tho lst OF September, when they arc
moulting thcr skins They go blind when
the shedding is in progress. and will strike
at any strange sound or touch. Even the
eyes Of the snake peel off when shedding
of the skin, which sometimes takes place
in couple Of hours and sometimes re-
quires several days.
OF the varieties of rattlers, the black,
the yellow and the swamp ruttlcsnake, he
has found the latter to be the most dam
gerOus, being the quickest to snap and
making the Highest noise when it rattlcs.
Though the black and the rattlcsnake are
enemies in the woods, they never fight in
captivity; but the black snakes will some
times attack each other when hungryr3
the victorious reptile not infrequcntlXa
swallowing another hnlf or two-thirds as1
large as itself That the poison of the
rattlers is not always elected through the
fangs is shown by the fact that in killing
a mouse or bird, before swallowing it. they
do not poison it when they strike it with
their fangs.
Petc's advice to any one rs the first
thing to do if bitten by rattlcsnake Gfa
vein is not struck by the fangs, in which
case death would be certain) is to place
the mouth in an instant to the wound and
draw out all the poison possible in that
way; at the same time, if the bite be on
the hand or about the ankle, to clasp the
limb tightyly above the wound. The last
person bitten in this vicinity was little
boy at Reno, about year ago, who was
struck by full-grown coppcrhead. By
promptly resorting to the above method
The father of the lad drew the most of the
poison from the wound, and with the ap-
plication following of the usual rcstOra-
tivcs the boy soon recovered.
"Rattlcsnake Pcte's saloon, on Elm
street, is vcritablc museum. He has a
large and varied collection Of curiositics,
comprising everything from bear to G
two-lcggcd kitten, from mouse to q
monkey, curious war relics, ancient
coins Chinese curlositics and thou
sand and one things which cannot be
enumerated in this article. He also has
some fine serpent specimens, rattlesnakes,
black snakes, coppcrheads, etc. These he
handles in most familiar manner.