San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-12-15
RATTLEsNAKE HUNTERS STORY
More than 5000 Snakes the Test
mony to HIS Prowess.

]
! Scranton, has killed more rattlesnake s
: than any other man in Pennsylvania.
J Mr.. Goodrich was bora and brought
up in Greenfield Township, this cOuD-
| ty, and Is 65 years old. He IS
| feet tall and weighs 100 pounds.
very Few or MS acquaintances
Know what great rattlesnak Q
slayer he has been, for he is not much
| ola Galker. aud he app ears to mag
! inc that his experiences among the
! poisonous snakes are of no partiCu lar
| in terest to people. Mr.. Goodrich is .
| coal breaker builder by trade. He
has been hurt by falling from scaffOlds
several times and the injuries have
! crippled him considers bly,. He is now
| In the employ of the New York, On
| tario and Western railroad Company
at its switch and signal station near
! the diamond crossing, short distance
| north OF the Providence road. One
night last week the writer found Mr..
Goodrich working the levers in his
| coZy little lookout house, and between
trains the old man found time to tell
some of his experiences.
II have killed upward of 5000 rattle.
snakes,n he said, land was on the
hunt for every one of them when ]
killed it. The only rattiesnske that
ever came anywhere near striking
me got angry because L unintentiOn.
ally stepped on his tail, and struck
the front of my vest with his fangs
| and left thread of GREEN'S b poison
on it. The snake didn't get chance
to strike again, for L pinned it to the
ground and cut its head off,"
1.-The reason why 1 began to hunt
| rattlesnakes was because my moth
ar had three small cancers on her
lace when L was quite a Jung man.
The cancers smarted and burned and
gave mother u great deal of pain, AL
though the skin was not raw, and she
| suffered day and night. An Indian
doctor told her to rub rattlssnake Oil
on the cancers four or five times day
saying that it would give her relief
| Immediately and prolOng her life.
went twenty miles for some oil and
| paid two dollars an ounce tor 1t. 1t
stopped the smartiDg and burning
right away. and m other felt so much
better in few days that / made up
| my mind to get enough oil TO last her
| a year, and [ dtdn't propose In go
twenty miles to get it or to pay 81 all
| ounce for it.
There were no rattlesnakes in
Greenfield Township, the nearest
| rattlesnake grounds being on the
| Moosic Mountain range, between Car
| bOudale at DunmOre. | hal never
! killed rattletnake, but L heard Of an
| old rstJlesnake hunter Oh the noun
| tain near the Pennsylvania Coal Com
| paDy's gravity railroad, and on the
Sth of May L trudged fifteen miles to
| mis- house to get HIM to teach me how
TO hunt the reptiles He couldn't 90
with me. but he showed me how 10
| pin the snakes necks to the ground
| with a crotched stick, aad he pointed
| out rocky side of the mountain,
where he said, / would fine plenty of
rattlesnAkes near their den. That
| was all the Instructions | had, and
before noon 1 was convinced that the
| old snake hunter knew all about the
habits and haunts of the rattlers in
his neighborhOod.
MY first rattlesnake hunt was the
| most successful one / ever had. My
| only instruments were crorched
sapIing, sharp jack knife and a
quart bottle. had the bottle to put
| the fat in, the sspling to catch the
snakes with, and the knife to beh cad
the reptiles and cut the fat out. The
| snakes are good deal more numerous
than / expected to find them. They
were only q short distance from the
den they had wiDtered, and L killed
! lS4 before the middle OF the after
noon. The bottle wasn't half big
| enough to hold All the fat 7 took out
| Of the ratt!esnakes, and [ made q
| OirCh-Daik box u puo the rest
| in. It. WAS lOug after dark when
got hume with the fat. i
| had walked nearly forty miles and
killed 1871 rattlesnakes since in the
| unrmiug and I WAS tired and proud.
| tried uu' % ounces Of oil.
| the only fat in rattlesnake lies
III slender strip from 8 TO Is inches
| long, on eacn side OF the lnGestiues,
| nesr the back bone. 1t takes but q
| minute to sliG tue snakes belly open
| AUD peel OuC tine thin layers of tat.
The tat is as whitea milk - YOu have
| to try the oil out i'll an earthen vessel,
| and the scraps that are left amount 10
almost nothipg. There is not particle
| Of oil In d ratJlesuake'S flesh. / have
| neard Oi men hanging rattlesnaRes
up by the head in the sun so as To let
the oil drip into 0asin or pail. There
10 nothing but nonsense in sucn a
statement rs that. Let a rattlesr ok g
hang in the not eun all day and not u
drop Of oil would come out of its body
anywhere. the flesh would dry up
and absorb all the tat inside. Leave
the snake in the Gun for two days and
IG would become so dry aud brittle
that you could break it in pieces like
rotten stick.
SIN my experience with rattle
snakes l have found that the best
| Time To hnnE Ihem il soon AfLer they