San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-10-01
ghe Daily Eight.
THERsDAY, OCTOBER l, 1891.
Running a Rattlesnake Farm.

both sides of the Delaware River. he
Games from Dingman's Ferry, in Pike
county, Pa, where he has rattle
snake farm. He raises few vegeta-
bles 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 hamlet
in allNew Jersey and Pennsylvania too
small for Jaggers to exhibit in. If
there is nothing in sight, but tav-
ern, he can at least get supper, q
few dimes and nip or two of apple
lack. In towns, however, he fares
better, and from the numerous small
summer resorts, which line the west
side of the Delaware, he often joys of
with q considerable weight OF silver
in his pockets.
So strongly are most people inn
pressed with the personality of a
RATHER, that when even dead one is
brought to town it is sure toattract a
crowd. So when Jaggers ties his de-
jected horse to the tavern rail and
proceeds to scatter some thirty or
forty big and very lively rsttlers in
the road there is a sensation.
Jaggers' methods vary with circum-
stances, but when he can he takes
possession of bar room. Sometimes
he charges q dime or five cents for ad.
mission. More often he passes the
hat after the show is over. The show
itself is simple enough. He lifts his
snakes from the box with stick and
starts them wriggling all over the
floor. He guides them about with the
stick, picks them up with 1T, hangs
them over his outs tretched arms aud
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 meads with it, causes them TO
coil and uncoil, to rise in the air, lie
fiat, strike or cover. The stick is al
WAYS moving, and the rattlers are
always sensible of it and apparently
under its influence. All through the
maneuvers. which Jsggers conducts
with the volubility and manners Of
Coney Island Snowman, he showers
challenges right and left.
Twenty cents to a nickel,
gentlemen, that l can make POcano,
the big'un there with the fourteen
rattles, jump over the stick! What, no
takers? Then l think I've got the
drinks on you, gentlemen, and after
we have them, il any one wants to
bet me that old Blue PIN, him over
there with the yaller belly and elev-
en- ratbles, can't dance a jig on his
button, let him make me a PROPOSE.
ton. Or I'll bet any man inthe crowd
SO 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 rattle
snake, by virtue OF which the biggest
and nastiest can be subjugated. will
also lay you a similar wager, and re.
peat it as often as you please, that no
one in this room ever saw this kind
of wood before, though L assure yon
on my word of honor that L cut it
from the parent tree no further of
than Pike county, Pennsylvania.
What, no takers? Gentlemen, you
lack sand. Here, Blazes, you're too
fresh by half. Take a smell of this
here stick and keep quiet"
When the show is over and Jsggers
has lured all the small change pos.
sible from the pockets of the wond er.
ing countrymen, he puts his snakes
back in the box, lifting each from the
floor by its tail, and sits down in the
bar room 70 talk.
He is a potentate and is looked on
with wonder by all. How he pro-
duces his stick again and dilates upon
it's astonishing virtues. He declares
that it has an all-powerful influence
over rattlesnakes, as indeed it appa-
rently 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 that knows where
that tree grows. 1t is certain num-
Der of miles and rods and feet in q
certain direction from certain point
near Dingman's Ferry. There are no
rattlesDakes to be found for miles
around it, so much do they dread its
p?Wer,
He starts the farmers and mountain
people to guessing what the wood is.
Most people say it is white ash, for all
through this country it is believed
that white ash possesses a mysterious
power over rattlesnakes, and white
ask bark is always bound on rattle
snake bites, in the belief that it has
virtue to suck the poison from the
wound But Jaggers declares solemn
ly that it is not white ash, and as a
matter of fact it does not look like it.
Many OF the country people believe
Jaggers' story aoOuJ the mysterious
tree growing I'm isoinHmn frsm it's
kind in that spot near - rgm ans
Ferry. DINERS refuse to n,. I've it
and rh nk t nat Jaggers as disco cr, d
some drug which suhdues rather
and has stepped stick of ordinary
wood in it.
A few doubters believe that the
snake man removes the nnisOn saCI