Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-10-16

G1V1Nd IL ~ THEM ON The FLY.
Couldn't tell" he replied. "When I
was young and proud 1 used to keep &C.
count of every snake. But I gave that up
long ago. l tell you its fun on a nice, dewy
morning to get back in the woods among
them. AS soon as l see one I crack the
forked end of a stick over the back of his
head and pin him down, and in a minute l
have his oil in a bottle and his skin over
my shoulder ready to be made into a lady's
belt. Sometimes l get them ut night by
hanging around the lake with a lantern
and batting them on the heads when they
come down for q drink. You see, the Ian
tern attracts their attention long enough
to give me a chance to take aim and fetch
them"
do you ever miss?" l asked.
Never" he responded. with an air of
wounded professional pride. "Once when I
was young and inexperienced I used to hit
them sitting. But when l got the hang of
the thing l would wait for them to spring
and give it to them on the fly. Sometimes
I catch them in my hand when they spring
at me, and by a,sudden jerk break them in
three or our places. Once when l was
younger and spryer than l am now l got
surrounded by rattlesnakes. I was in the
middle of a circle of them, and each had
raised his head off the ground to spring at
me-. Then by a great, supreme effort l let
go with a sweep of my pole and turned
with it. When the pole got around to the
point from which it started I found all the
snakes lying around me like the spokes
around Il hub, with their heads off,"
"Wha do you do with the snakes?"
1.-THE big ones l kill, and sell the oil and
skins. The little ones l raise to kill when
o~yvr loy,@ - - E---- -
far from here where l cultivate and breed
them. They are perfectly harmless when
small, but that takes all the excitement
out of the business. See herel"
He suddenly took a handful of small
snakes out of his ~coattail pocket and
counted them to see that hone had escaped.
When he put them back he continued:
Sometimes it is HARD to kill them when
they grow up, because you become so at
tached to them. After you have been with
them for a time, and they come up and eat
grasshoppers out of your hand, and follow
you around, and get lonely when you go
to bed at night, and curl up with Joy when
they see you in the morning, it is hard to
kill them. / never cal do it myself, but
| get a neighbor to do it for me. l used to
have an old snake that we called Uncle
Pete. He would 20 over to the store to be
put in the oven to get warm or would hang
over the elbow of the s%tovepipe. He
would often ~afectionately coil about me,
and thrust his head over my shoulder, lay
his face against my cheek and purr like u
kitten. He often played with the baby on
the floor, and would amuse him by rat
thing his rattle. We had him about five
years and regarded him as one of the fam
lily. One night the fire went out and he
was frozen SO stiff that during the winter
We used him for a clothes pole. In the
spring l inserted him in an old tin pipe
and tenderly buried him in the garden"
Here the snake farmer got down off the
fence. heaving a deep sigh of regret, and
babe me good day, adding: "Come down
and see me at the snake farm any time.
must go over to give the little r~attlers
their dinner g r. e MUNKITTRIcK.