Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1892-11-16

Five Time. Bitten, hnt Not Rr:sly to
abandon Hi. \ut'nttu3,

RATrLEsNAKEs ARE His LIVING.
Five Time. bitten. hnt Mt Kr:'Ay to
abandon His Vocation.
The popular h(c;l IL that II rattle
su.tko Ii Il curse 10 mankind and Ut
absolutely iu 11>c. except possibly IT,
give the male contingent III camping,
and picnic lurtic, III excuse fur pro
vilinE Il we'll known serpent hito
untilr:c. Andrew A|;cr-. Il white
lluirtel examiner, WHO occasionally
comes to town from his lonely home
away upiu the S:;n Dernar1ino noun
tuins, ttl!< us that the r;lttlt~1lakc III,
in it's why. Il blessing to mankind.
Il reckon ! ought to know son'e'
thing a},t>u; the Sc11H>nt%, " rail l'e tho
other day. "fua' | have earned thc
whole living OF myself end ~j{e i0:'
several years in catching ratt(t1;* anil
yett,,: tho oil out ut them. / know
so1n, folks arc mighty *::l''y about
rut1lc>nHl1e%, .untl for enc who don't
know about the critters ways 1t il
pretty risky business, getting; f:>n%e:1
BY Il rattlrt, occasionally get nerv
OTIS among Inc rattltrs. but | have to
keep II Stea:ly nerve and u,1it:1 eye iii
my business s."
The OH gentleman tells us that lie
hal always heard how valuable pure
:; rattlcSl>akc oil is. and that several
yours ago he got the oil from II %ozcn
snakes that he came ;crtss IN his
woo4lcutting operations III the noun
tains. When tile summer WIS over
he had twenty ounces, and got two
dollars M ounce for I'LL Ut it from Il
Los Angeles druggist. He las since
made business Of hunting rattle.
snakes up aud down the mountain
sides and through the canyons. l1o
catches from, l5it to 200 snakes i'll 4
| summer, ami generally gathers from
! $500 to $500 worth OF oil from them
| The market price for tho pru|luct i,
/ :wo .}ul!ur1 TN ounce, and there is
little fuctuation Eattles1lake oil is
used i'll rheumatic cures and III olnt.
u,crts for some skin diseases The
oil when sold has n pe;1rly white
color und is free from any odor, 1t
! tastes much like tallow, A good
sized rattlcsnuko will furnish from
Que to two ounces of oil.
How do catch the snakes
Well, thut il easy enough. wear
! boots up above my knees so rs tc
protect me from any RATHER may
tread upon. and always 60 with q
strong forked stick or club i'll my
hand. have to keep my wits about
! ME constantly. and to think quick
when : am III IL snake locality a1n1
hear Il rattle. always try to gel
tho ruttlers by putting the fork o1
my stick over their neck a. quick IL
Il flush, uni then have tllc crlttei
+! inst where want him. ncx1
! stranylc thu snake hy pressing my
fingers down upon the netk. | ~
tho t%ttlc,s III this way 50 u to kecl
; them from biting themselves. AIT
thereby letting the poison into thu
oil that | am after. In nine case:
ont ot ten 1uttlt=nakes will blts
themselves it they have chance
un1 they arc tho snarttst thing
alive, excerpt human brings. Once
in awhile | gct the ,uttlcrs h!
smashing them III the l."ud. hut
don't like that way, for it's. nlo:t
dangerous a,ld the oil is not 50 good,
Have | ever been bitte1lf YES
fire times, and | suffered so mucl
tho last time that all tho money o1
earth would not ilrluce mo to h'
poisoned so again. Tl1;,t WAS fuu
years uyo. and cam feel pains tro''
it to this day. | don't beliere IN:
ono ever fully recovered from IL dos
Ut genuine r@ttlcsnako poison. tt i
the most awful stuff Oh e;srth.
have seen great big COWS dlo of
drop of the poison in an hour
time. 49, Pomona Cali Progress.