The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-11
SNAKES ARE NOT 50 WICKED
Many Of Them Exist Largely in the
Imagination.

They Cannot Jump, Nor Spit Their
Venom, and Rattles are to Warn
the Human Race That There Is
Danger in It's Way-In Kansas to
Hear of Them One Must Go to the
Drug Stores-An Epic Adventure
With Rattlesnake.
From the New York Times
Highlands, n. c., Aug. 4.-Why is there
and instructive dread of srakes in the
human mind more than of any other
animal? Some persons, who are always
wanting to know the reason for things,
have attributed this dread to the fact
that the devil, when engaged in tempting
our first mother, took the form of SER
pent, and that Grandmother Eve, in her
repentance, acquired an aversion for
snakes which has been inherited by all
her descendants, and has all its original
force, in spite of better knowledge of the
auctual disposition and habits of these
reptiles. But scientific students see in
the cold blood, the sly, snealzing ways of
the snake, its venom, and its sudden at
tack, sufficient reasons for our antipatny.
In spite of the knowledge which experts
in snakes may have of their real charac-
ter, few even of these persons can see one
within reach without a shudder and ra-
turalists, who have learned how inoffen-
sive is one with its head cut of, are
thought to be brave when they permit
the dead half-skinned creature to touch
them on the arm. The venomous reptiles
are bad enough, doubtless, but they have
been painted in worse colors than they
CT lot L.,
are able to Jump at least the wholelength
of their body and four or five feet above
ground has much alarmed those who
go into rural retreats and mountain
places. This story is an invention of a
woman who has studied snakes in Africa,
but who admits that she never saw one
jump, and still insists that she Knows
they car jump, because they can All
women will recognize the logic of this
reason. But the naturalist sees in the
structure of the snake inability to throw
itself from the ground, or even TO strike
withits heard at a longer distance than
the part of its body above the coil, as the
RATHER lies in its hostile attitude when
disturbed.
Moreover, the rattlesnake. as all others,
is not in the habit of going out of its way
to attack any person-its business is to
find its food, and its whole attention is
directed TO that purpose in life. If il
suddenly comes in contact with an enemy,
its habit is to coil. 1t does this, too,
when it sleeps-in both cases because this
attitude is one in which it is instautan-
eously ready to defend itself. If it is not
attacked it will rattle, or buzz with its
inotfensive end, and stand on tine defense,
with mouth open for time, but will soon
subside, and even go to sleep
again or quietly slide away,
like guilty thing glad TO get
of easily. But you may stir up the
reptile with a stick and it will
buzz louder and more savagely and bite
the stick, but will not advance. IL will
sooner retreat, and, if struck, it will still
try to escape The sole danger is that
one might suddenly come upon one una
wares, and, by stepping on il, or coming
within reach of its stroke. be bitten. But
let us reasonably believe that the So
norous rattles of this snake have been
given to it, not more for its own protec-
ton than for the safety of our race. that
it may be warned in time and have an op-
portunity of getting out of the way of
Danger
Another false charge made against this
reptile is that it will spit or blow it's
venom TO a distance of several feet, and
always into a persons eye. IL is true that
the eye is the most susceptible part of an
animals body TO any poison, but that
the snake learned this and has acquired
perfect certaintyof aim by long practice
is more than NAV be believed, as it is also
the statement that its venom, when the
creature is enraged. pours in a stream
that may be blown TO several feet by
strong puff Of its breath. The fact is that
the venom OF the snake is only pressed
out by the closing of the mouth on it's vic
tim, and it then passes through the minute
oritice in the fang in very small quantity,
for the gland in which the poison is col
lected is not in an ordinary sized snake
as large as pea The ordinary saliva of
the reptile may fow-this is not impossi-
BILE This saliva, however, is not the
snakes poison but a glairy liquid with
which all snakes are accustomed to smear
their prey as an aid to swallowing.
Snakes are at times easily caught. Sew
enteen rattlers were once taken by 70
year-old Coy while blowing on a Kansas
prairie before breakfast, and it was a
poor time for snakes But in walking
and riding several hundred miles over
those boundless prairies, where the hor-
lion surrounds one as at sea. and in go
ing through the the thick grass and
among the plum bushes, gathering flow
ers and specimen plants, one may never
happen to come within the sound Of a
ratter 10 hear Of il one may have to 20
20 the drug stores In the villages where
mon who have been bitten went for their