The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-10-12
SNAKES KEPT IN STOCK.
Interesting Avocation Followed By a
Philadelphia Locksmith.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Although Henry Hagedorn, of Willow
and New Market streets, is a good lock-
| smith and works at his trade during the
winter, his chosen industry is catching aud
selling snakes, and for the last five years he
has visited Florida every summer and
| brought back as many as eighty snakes at
once He says:
81 sell the most Of them to showmen, but
there are number of people here who buy
reptiles to experiment with, and some make
pets of them. A black, or king snake, can
| be easily tanned, and IL it wasn't for soaring
your neighbors there would be the best rat
tiers in the world, but they stray OFF and get
lost. brought home In August sixty-fiy We
| snakes, twelve OF them rattlers, an six of
them I sold TO one man for S25. Come
with me and will show you my collec-
| tion.n
| THE SNAKE EMPORIUM.
In long room in dismantled morocco
| factory, the sides fitted up with board
boxes and wire fronts, a whir like that Of q
sewing machine saluted the ear as soon as
the door opened.
They're the rettlers. ! have three and
| two Of 'em are sold. The southern rattle
snake is better for show than those we
catch here. They are much more activS
and vicious, and their poison is more fatal i.
| Yes, 1t is very warm. / must keep up a
| hot fire, as my snakes are sensitive to cold.
| There is not much money in the business, &C
| too many of 'em die on my banda"
| On top OF one Of the cages, lit up by a
stray ray of sunlight, lay what looked like
heap of dirty towels. 1t suddenly moved,
and then uncoiled fold after fold, and
glided over to the rattler's cage.
"See, that is Georgia king snake, nearly
nine feet long, and whenever the rattlers
| ha Ia H. 70
harmless, and kills all moccasins and rattle
snakes he can get at.
THE WORST OF THEM ALL
81 have black pine and whipsnakes in
these cages. They are all harmless. but
| that fellow | dread more than q RATHER.
| That is genuine copperhead."
This reptile was about two feet long, as
thick asa mans wrist and red-brown In
color, with head much the shape Of a
clam, and looked vicious.
| "In catching the rattlers and dangerous
ones use the staff like this" a pole eight
| feet long with strap, making loop at the
end.
81 have been bitten twice by moccasins,
| but did not suffer much, but / am very
careful | had a man working for me in
Florida. He was all right when sober, but
very reckless when drunk. One day he
took RATHER out of a barrel TO show off and
was dead man. Whisky did no good, as
his system was already full Of it.
II feed my snakes on rats, mice, and lat
terly l have got a good many sparrows.
They seem TO like them best, but now their
apostles begin to fail, and they will not
feed sometimes for two weeks This big
king snake finds himself and catches rat
nearly every other day.
THE MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE.
"I got huge black snake last year in
Jersey Ii was quite eight feet long aud
could swallow full-grown chicken. let
| il run loose in this room, and one day a
neighbours cat followed me In. He went
poking about and all at once heard loud
sQuall, and. sure enough, the snake had
caught puss right behind the ear and at
once threw a coil around the body. 1t was
a big mistake. The cat caught the snake
in its teeth and bit it 80 hard that it died in
a few hours after, but no amount Of coaxing
| will get that cat TO enter the room again.
81 have often wondered why the rattle
snake should be furnished with warning
signal that is denied TO much more danger
our reptiles The Indian cobra and the
West india Fer de lance are far more
deadly and aggressive. Indeed the rattler
is, Of all American reptiles, the most dan
| ger0us.
The only man in this city in the business
besides myself is on Girard avenue above
| Front He gets his stock from Florida, and
his customers are mostly out of town. In
the spring / viii 60 TO New York and &c
into importing stock AID wild animals
from abroad"