St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-21
He CHARMS SNAKES.
Interesting Story Of George
Jaggers and His Curious
Stick.
He Makes Poisonous Reptiles
Do His Bidding Easily
With 1t.
ALI His Power Lies in the Pc
culiar Wood of the
Rod.
Idiosynerasies Of Jaggers'
Horse, Which Has No Use
for Snakes.
Newton Corresnondent New Work Snn


to bed for month with body full OF
snake poison it was generally predicted
that he would not attempt to juggle with
snakes another season, or that he would
at least substitute harmless blacksnakes
for his favorite rattlers. He had hard
time OF it getting the poison out of his
system, but he has not been frightened.
He has always said that mo rattiesnake
could bluff him." and the fact that he is
at the summer resorts and farming set
Elements again with forty big and lively
rattlesnakes in his box proves his as
sertion.
George Jaggers is we'll known on both
sides of the Delaware river. He comes
from Dingman's terry, in Pike county,
Pennsylvania, where he has a rattle
snake farm. He raises few vegetables
for himself, and farm produce sufficient
for the needs Of the horse which drags
him and his snakes round the country
in the summer. But his livelihood
comes mainly from his snake show.
There is not hamlet in all New Jersey
and Pennsylvania too small for Jaggers
to exhibit in. If there is nothing in
sight but a tavern, he eau at least get a
supper, few dimes and nip or two of
applet ack. At a pinch he can always
sleep in the wagon with his snakes, and
he can always feed his horse Oh the
wayside grass.
LII towns, however, he fares better,
and from the numerous small summer
resorts which line the west side of the
Delaware he often joys off with con-
siderable weight of silver in his peck
cts.
While rattlesDakes are very plentiful
in the country they keep pretty close TO
the mountains. They are rare in the
cultivated districts and settlements. So
strongly are most people impressed
with the personality of a RATHER that
when even dead one is brought to
town it Is sure to attract a crowd. So
when Jaggers ties his detected horse TO
the tavern rail and proceeds to scatter
some thirty or forty BIC and very lively
rattlers in the road there is a Sensa-
ton.
,Iaggers' methods vary with circum-
stances, but when he can he takes pos
session of a bar room. Sometimes he
charges dime OF five cents for admis-
sion. More often lie passes the hat after
his 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. 1t is
his stick, not he that the snakes obey.
1t seems to exert strange influence
over them. He turns them at will by
touching their heads with it. causes
them to coil and uncoil, to raise in the
air, lie fiat, strike or cover. The stick
is always moving. and the rattlerS are
always sensible of it, and apparently
under its influence. All through the
maneuvers. which Jaggers conducts
with the vOluDility and manners of a
COney island Snowman, he showers
challenges right and left.
TWENTY-FIVE cents to nickel, gentle
men, that L can make Pocano, the big
Jun there with the fourteen rattleS,
jump over the stick! What. no takers?
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 PIN, him over there with the
yaller belly and eleven rattles, can't
me proposition. Or III bet any man
in the crowd $40 to 81, and repeat it as
often as he likes, that he can't
name the wood IN this stick. This
stick. gentlemen, is endowed with a
singular power over the rattlesnake, by
virtue Of which the biggest and nastiest
can be subjugated. / will also lay you
a similar 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. Penn
sylvania. What, no takers? Gentle
men. you lack sand. Here, Blazes,
you're too fresh by half. Take 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
countrymeD. he puts his snakes back in
the box, lifting each from the floor by
It's tail, and sits down in the bar room to
talk. He is potentate, and is loo ked
on with wonder by all. Now he pro-
duces his stick again, and dilates upon
its astonishing virtues. He declares
that it has an ail-powerful influence
over rattleSnakes, and indeed it appar-
emily has. Then he announces 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. 1t is certain number of miles
and rods and feet in certain direction
from "a certain point near Dingman's
Ferry. There are no rattlesnakes to be
found for miles around it, so much do
they dread its power. He starts the
farmers and mountain people to guess
ing what the wood is.
Most people say it is white ash, for all
through this country it is believed that
white ash possesses mysterious power
over rattlesnakes, and white ash bark is
always bound on rattlesnake bites in
the belief that it has virtue to suck the
poison from the wound. But Jaggers
declares Solemnly that it is not white
ash, and as matter of fact it does not
look like it.
Many of the country people believe
Jaggers' story about the mysterious tree
growing in isolation from its kind in
that spot near Dingman's Ferry. Others
refuse to believe it, and think that Jag
gers has discovered some drug which
subdues rattlers, and has stepped a stick
| of ordinary wood in it. Whatever may
be the secret, it undoubtedly is fact
that the rattlers are governed by Jag
gers stick.
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, seems to corroborate his assertion
that IheX are just as venomous as when
he first captured them. The fact that
he has been bitten by RATHER does not
detract from his reputation. 1t shows
that he had at least one poisonous snake
in his collection, and makes it presum-
able that all are poisonous. Besides, he
got well, and that in itself is something
of feat. Jaggers says his stick cured
him.
Not the least interesting part of Jag
gers show is his horse. He is the en-
bodiment of eternal apprehension. He
is happy only when he is painfully
dragging his rheumatic limbs over the
mountain roads with Jaggers behind
him. alternately rapping him over the
head and punching him in the back
with his snake stick. Then the horse
knows that the rattlesnakes are safely