The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-09-22
AT HUCKLEBERRY HILL
Rattlers Cause Trouble and Ter
rify Grandpa Connor.

rlry Grandpa COnnOr.
Every year people flock to Huclkle-
berry hill! from away up in Steuben
county, N. Y; from clear over in Nc
Kean county, the furthest parts of Pot
ter county, and distant sections of
Tioga county, says a Roulette (Pa.)
correspondent of the New York Sun.
Huckleberry hill is the only place
within radius of fifty miles where the
fruit for which it is named grows in
any quantity, and the people of all that
country being especially fond of huclkle-
berries they think nothing of driving
all night and part of day to get on
the prolific barrens of Huckleberry
hill, where several square miles of
nothing but berry bushes and sword
like brakes spread beneath the scorch-
ing sun. The hill is one thousand feet
above the valley of Pine creek, in east,
ern Potter county, and abounds in
scanned ledges and tumbled heaps of
loose rocks. Whole families camp for
days on this forbidding barren to pick
huckleberries for market. AS many as
one thousand five hundred persons have
been on the hill at one time, where
dancing platforms, hurdy gurdies, open
air gin mills, brass bands, and all kinds
of taking schemes are in full blast to
amuse and fleece the visitors.
Like all good huckleberry districts,
Huclzleberry hill is a favorite haunt of
rattlesnakes, and they grow there to
extraordinary size and virility. These
snakes keep many pickers on the move
from one part of the big berry patch to
another part, for they are always
around, and some huckleberry visitors
do not care to dispute territory with
them, but retreat to other points as
soon as they can discover rattler or
hear one in their vicinity. Others,
though, are loath to give up a good
picking place because rattlesnake or
two are taking things comfortable
there and don't care to be disturbed,
and they pitch in with clubs and rout
or slay the reptile tenant of the spot.
So at almost any time of day visitor
may see men, women and children,
some of them pale and terror.stricken,
moving away from some particular 10.
cality with much haste, and others
thrashing away in the bushes with
clubs and holding their own against
the snakes.
Not day passes that some one isn't
bit by rattler. When the berry pick
ers return from the hill to their various
homes they fetch with them stories of
queer and exciting experiences with
rattlesnakes that some one has had.
This recital has come to be known
hereabouts as the annual crop of snake
stories from Huckleberry hill The
gathering of this crop is awaited with
more interest by many people than the
picking of the huckleberry crop.
Among the best of these stories that
have reached Roulette, which is thirty
miles from the hill, but which sends
caravan of huckleberry pickers there
every season, are these:
Mrs. Juston, of Leetonia, had found
q patch where the berries were espe-
eially fine and abundant. She was
rapidly filling her twelve-quart pail,
much to the envy of Miss Still, friend
of hers, who hadn't struck extraordi-
nary luck. Suddenly Mrs Juston picked
up her pail and walked away from her
rich find without saying word. Miss
Still gazed after her in amazement, and
asked her if she wasn't coming back to
that lovely spot
':No," said Mrs Juston. ':You can
have it if You want it."
Miss Still thanked Mrs. Juston effu,
styely for her great generosity and un.
selhshness, and was soon sweeping the
berries into her pail just where Mrs.
Juston had picked up her pail so sud-
denly and walked away. Miss Still was
in position that brought her face
almost even with her pail, and as she
was picking away, two big rattlesnakes
rose up from somswhere' behind the
pail and stuck theft fugly noses oyer the
side of it, not two feet away from Miss
Stills face. For an instant the young
woman was unable to move, but then
she recovered herself, sprang up, and
ran.
Hello, Emmy!" said Mrs. Juston
from her new picking spot, laughing at
what she thought was good joke.
"Did you see emp"
The secget of Mrs Juston,s generos-
ity was revealed to Miss Still, and it
made her SO angry that she stopped
running, hunted around until she
found club, and FASTENED back to her
huckleberry pail. The snakes were
still there, and Miss Still pitched into
them. They were ugly and fought her
back SO fiercely that she had to thrash
around in the bushes for several
minutes before she laid them out,
and after she had laid these two
out she had to kill another big
one that came on the scene to see