Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1894-05-19
SNAKES IN FLORIDA.
A MAN WHO HAS CAUGHT THEM FOR
TWENTY-ElGHT YEARS.

He Charms Them With Banjo and Cures
niteB with Weed Mathematics Are
Easy to Tame The King Snake Is a King
Indeed The biggest Rather.
After a man has spent % years Of his
life catching snakes he knows what he
is talking about 81 Foman is 43 years
old. He went into the business of catch
ing snakes when he was 10. He shows
evidence Of what the insurance men
would call can extra hazardous voca-
tom in tho shape of rs or more scars,
the result of wounds inflicted by the
fangs of reptiles. These scars are all
over his body-on his legs one ON his
jaw, under the eye, where RATHER clip
ped him and hung one day while the
back Of his hands look like crows nests
of scars. He is colored man and has
the appearance of having Indian blood
in his veins.
'All snakes, said ST, like music,
and this banjo is the thing use to catch
thom with. Suppose I'm in the woods
and see q rattlesnake crawl down GO
pher hole go to the mouth of the hole
and play, and pretty soon here comes
the old fellow crawling forth. AS soon
as he gets outside l pick him up and
put him in the bag. If he's in the open,
coiled under q palmetto leaf, I'm more
cautious About 80 feet off / sit down
and play, and the snake quickly uncoils
himself and rolls around over the ground
as if he enjoyed it. He rattles all the
time, but not as loud as he does when
he means business and is giving you
warning to give him more room. grad
ually approach, playing softer and soft
er, and finally l pick him up about the
middle and slip him in the bag and go
looking for another.
"a rattlesnake is the most poisonous
of all the snakes in Florida His bite
is sure death unless you have an anti
dote very handy. I've got an antidote,
though, and q bite never troubles me
now in the least. 1t isso efIicacious that
the wound hardly swells. l went down
and spent nearly two years among the
Seminoles in the Everglades to get it,
and then it was good luck. Twas ont in
the woods one day with Knothole. The
old fellow got bitten by q rattlesnake,
and he started at once for his antidote
l followed him, for l knew what he was
looking for. He tried TO conceal the plant
by crushing it down with his foot, but
/ picked it up and told him that was
the thing to euro snake bites He re-
marked that l was too much of an In
dian and must stay always in the IL
dian camp. The plant not only cures
snake bite, but the stings of all kinds of
insects, and it is also said to cure rabies
well, 10 get back to snakes. There
are two kinds Of rattlers il Florida
One is the swamp RATHER and the other
the highlander. The swamp snake has
larger head and a thicker body and is
altogethCra heavier snake than his high
laad brother. His coat, too is darker
and his diamonds brighter He is more
vicious and gives mighty little time for
you to move when he sounds the alarm.
"Rattlesnallos IRE very easy to tame
Let me handle them for about four days,
and they know me and make no effort
whatever to bite. don take the fangs
out, for what's the use? In two weeks
they grow out again big enough to kill
you, ard in six weeks are as big as they
ever We're. I have heard people say that
rattlosn2lo gets his poison from
plant, but it s all nonsense. It's in them,
for find tho year in captivity are
just as deadly IS when fresh from the
woods.
"The bigeoet ilttlesnako ever saw
caught up here h Palatlla. He was 10
feet / inches long, weighed 38 pounds
and had So rattles. I had him in pit
there in the yard for long time. A
hcaFJ ra.1 c.:-.o once and filled the pit
up with water, and he drowned. Imade
q vest out Of his skin. I'm afraid I'll
never get another snake like that, " and
ST sighed to think what he had lost
81, how far does a rattlesnal1e striker"
"Some people say he strikes his
length, and others declare that he can
jump more than his length, but I've
watched them closely, and l know they
are wrong, y rattlesnalze can't get far
Their than the length of two coils. That's
about half his length.
where do you find most of the rat
tlers?'
Fort George is a great place for
them. Pablo p another good field, while
all down the coast in the scrub there are
thousands Then in the hummocks and
swamps you will ind plenty, and in the
pine woods, where there are gopher
holes. A rattlesnalle likes a gopher hole.
It's a nice snug place, and he lives there
with the coachwhip, the gopher and the
gopher snake in perfect harmony
"But the greatsnake, the smart snake,
the snake you can educate to perform
tricks, is the king snake, and he's the
king and enemy of them all, and he
kills all he can and eats them, too, if
they are not too large. The king snake
isn't afraid to tackle anything that
crawls. I've seen one kill a rattlesnake
almost twice as big as he was. The
king snake crawls silently up to where
the rattler is doing and grabs him with
his mouth by the jaws, so that the rat
tier can't possibly use his fangs, Then,
in the twinkling of an eye he coils him
self around his enemy and tightens his
coils and stretches them until you can
hear the bones crack. When he leaves,
the RATHER is like a jelly. Florida