The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-22

CHARMING RATTLERS.
Mr.. JAeeERs, OF PIKE COUNTY,
AND HIS CURIOUS STICK.

sides OF the Delaware river. He comes
from Dingman's Ferry, in Pike county:
Pa, where he has a rattlesnake farm. He
raises q few vegetables for himself and
farm produce sufficient for the needs of
the horse which drags him and his snakes
around the country in the summer. But
his livelihood comes mainly from his snake
show. There is not q hamlet in all NeW
Jersey and Pennsylvania too small for
Jaggers to exhibit in. If there is nothing
in sight but q tavern, he can at least get a
supper, a few dimes and nip or two Of
eppleja0k In towns, however, he fares
better, and from the numerous small sum.
mer resorts which line the west side of the
Delaware be often jogs of with q consid.
erable weight Of silver in his pockets
So strongly are most people impressed
with the personality of a rattler that when
even dead one is brought to town it is
sure to attract crowd So when Jag
gers ties his detected horse to the tavern
rail and proceeds to scatter some thirty or
forty big and very lively rattlers in the
road there is q sensation.
Jaggers' methods vary with circum-
stances, but when he can he takes posses
sion of barroom Sometimes he charges
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often he passes the hat after the show is
over. The show itself is simple enough.
He lifts his snakes from the box with a
stick and starts them wriggling all over
the floor. He guides them about with the
stick, picks them up with it, hangs them
over his outstretched arms, and places
them in his lap. lt is his stick, not he,
that the snakes obey. 1t seems TO exert
a strange influence over them.
He turns them at will by touching their
heads with it, causes them to coil and un-
coil, to rise in the air, lie fat, strike or
COVER The stick is always moving and
the rsttlers are always sensible of it and
apparently under its influence All through
the naneuvers, which Jaggers conducts
with the volubility and manners CT Coney
island Snowman, he showers challenges
right and left:
twenty-five cents to nickel, gentle
men, that / can make Pocano, the big 'un
there with the fourteen rattles, jump over
the stickI What, no takers7 Then | think
I've got the drinks on you, gentlemen, and
after we have them, if any one wants to
bet me that old Blue Piz'n, bin over there
with the yaller belly and eleven rattles,
can't dance a Jig on his button, let him
make me a proposition. Or I'll bet any
man in the crowd ten dollars to one dollar,
and repeat it as often as he likes, that he
can't name the wood in this stick.
"This stick, gentlemen, Is endowed with q
singular power over the rattlesnake, by vir-
tue of which the biggest and nastiest can
Sbe subjugated. will also lay you simi-
lar wager, and repeat it as often as you
please, that no one in this room ever saw
this kind of wood before, though | assure
YOU on my word of honor that | cut it
from its parent tree no further off than
Pike county, Pennsylvania. What, no
takers? Gentlemen, you lack sand Here,
Bazes, you're too fresh by half Take a
smell of this here stick and keep quiet"
When the show is over and Jaggers has
lured all the small change possible from
the pockets of the wondering countrymen,
he puts his snakes back in the box, lifting
each from the floor by its tail, and sits down
in the barroom TO talk.
He is potentate, and is looked on with
wonder by al Now he produces his stick
again, and dilates upon its astonishing
virtues. He declares that it has an all
powerful influence over rattlesnakes, as
indeed it apparently has. Then he an
nounces that there is only one tree in the
country of the sort, and that he is the only
man in the world who knows where that
tree grows. Ii is a certain number of miles
and rods and feet in a certain direction from
a certain point near Dingman's Ferry.
There are no rattlesnakes to be found for
miles around il, so much do they dread its
power.
He starts the farmers and mountain peo-
pie TO guessing what the wood is. Most
people say il is white ash, for all through
this country it Is believed that white ash
possesses a mysterious power over rattle
snakes, and white ash bark isalways bound
on rattlesnake bites in the belief that it
has virtue to suck the poison from the
wound But Jaggers declares solemnly
that il is not white ash, and as a matter of
fact il does not look like it.
Many of the country people believe Jag
gers story about the mysterious tree grow
ing in isolation from its kind in that spot
near Dingman's Ferry. Others refuse to
believe it. and think that Jaggers has dis
covered some drug which subdues rattlers,
and has stepped stick of ordinary wood
In it.
A few doubters believe that the snake
man removes the poison sacs from the
snakes before he exhibits them; but the
care he uses in handling them and the
reliance that he places on his stick, seldom
touching them with his hands before first
tapping their noses with the stick, seem to
eorroborate his assertion that they are just
rs venomous as when he first captured
them.
The fact that he has been bitten by a
-. ! ,n -,
ton. Ii shows that he had at least one
poisonous snake in his collection, and
makes it presumRble that all are poisonous.
Besides, be got well, and that in itself is
something of feat. Jaggers says his stick
cured him.
Not the least interesting part of Jaggers'
show is his horse. Eeis the embodiment of
eternal apprehension. He appears happy
only when he is pSinfully dragging his
rheumatic limbs ever the mountain roads
with JagEers behind him, alternately rap
ping him over the hips and punching him
In the back with his snake stick Then
the horse knows that the rattlesnakes are
safely slowed away In covered box. As
soon as a town or a tavern looms mp ahead,
however, Jaggers' horse shows an aston
Ishing change in demsSnor He limps
and appears reluctant to go farther.
When at length Jaggers draws up in
front Of the tavern he ties his horse very
firmly. for he knows the horse Then he
lifts the snake box from the wagon. The
horse shows q wonderful interest in the
box he watches JsgEers' every move
ment with an expression OF wistful appre-
hensien. II the snsks man takes the box
IetS the saloon. the horse draws a long
breath and sails toeheWing the tie post; but
II J&ggers opens it in the road and begins
TO drop snakes, fear Is in the horses eyes.
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