Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-08
A SLAYER OF SNAKES.

A Man Who Has Killed Several Thou
sand Reptiles.
Mr.. Clark Goodrich, of Scranton, has
killed more rattlesnakes than any other
man in Pennsylvania Mr.. Goodrich is
sixty-fve years old. He is six feet tall and
weighs 100 pounds He is coal breaker
builder by trade.
II have killed upward of 5000 rattle
snakes" he said, and was on the hunt
for every one of them when / killed it, The
only rattlesnake that ever came anywhere
near striking me got angry because l
stepped on it's tail and struck the front of
my vest with its fangs and left thread of
greenish poison on it.
THE reason began to hunt snakes was
because my mother had three small can
GERS on her face when was quite young
man. The cancers smarted and burned
and gave mother great deal OF pain. An
Indian doctor told her to rub rattlesnake
oil on the cancers four or five times day,
saying that it would give her relief imme-
diately and prolong her life went twenty
miles for some oil and paid two dollars an
ounce for it. 1t stopped the smarting and
burning right away, and mother felt so
much better in few days that madeu up my
mind to get enough oil to last her year.
There were no rattlesnakes in Green
field township, the nearest rattlesnake
grounds being ON the Moosic mountain
range. had heard of an old rattlesnake
hunter and | walked fifteen miles to his
house to get him to teach me how to hunt
the reptiles He could not go with me, but
he showed me how to pin the snakes necks
to the ground with crotched stick, and
pointed out rocky side of the mountain
where, he said, / would find plenty of
rattlers. My first rattlesnake hunt was the
most successful one ever had. My only
implements were "a crotched sapling, a
knife and quart bottle. had the bottle
to put the fat in, the sapling to catch ths
snakes with and the knife to behead the
reptiles and cut the fat out.
''That afternoon killed 1884, The bottle
was not big enough to hold all the fat /
took from the snakes, and l made birch
bark box to put the rest in. 1t was long
after dark when I reached home l had
walked forty miles and killed 1874 rattle,
snakes since O'Clock in the morning, and
l was tired and proud to get out twenty
ounces of oil. The only fat in snake lies
in slender strip from ming to thirteen
inches long on each side of the intestines,
near the backbone. The fat is as white as
milk. There is not particle of oil in the
flesh of rattlesnake.
"In my experience with rattlesnakes
have found that the best time to hunt them
is soon after they come out of their dens liz
the spring and when they coDgregate near
the dens in the fall They have just as
much fat in them when they crowd out Of
their winter quarters as when they return
for their winters sleep. The rattlers leave
their dens from May 8 to 10, and stay close
to them for several days, so as 10 glide back
in case a chilly frost comes. When they
become satisfied that there are going to be
no more cold snaps they wander away and
do not begin their return journey until the
middle of September.
"You cannot tell anything about the age
of rattler by the number of rattles on his
tail. / have killed old snakes that had only
two or three rattles each. They wear the
rattles off on bushes and stones. once
killed 4-foot snake that had twenty-three
rattles. That was the largest number
ever saw on a snake. The hunter comes
on a snake when it is coiled when it is
stretched out and when it is in motion.
don't care how find them, and have
always been able to act quicker than the
snake could.
Mother used the oil on her cancers for
eleven years. 1t kept the cancers4from
spreading, and it relieved her entirely of
pain. She died of fits Since then have
hunted rattlesnakes nearly every spring
and fall There is fascination in the work,
and one who has got in the habit of killing
the snakes can hardly give it up"
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