The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-27


Serpent.
From the New York sun.
Portland, Conn, Sept 22.-Tracking
rattlesnakes is a curious and favorite
sport on the part of a number of eccentric
hunters vino dwell on sterile little farms
among the rugged hills in waste places in
the mid-Connecticut valley Their
method is peculiar. They are ready to
track snakes-only rattlers are pecuni-
arily worthy of their prowess-at any
hour of the day and anywhere.
While at work in their stony fields among
the rugged hills, or strolling through
pasture land, or toiling along the dusty
roads on foot or in wagon, they are al
ways prompt TO drop all other concerns
and dart of on the track of RATHER.
They track him, moreover, in precisely
the same way that other sportsmen stalk
q rabbit or fox by his trail across snowy
fields Often they follow in the path of
serpent from ten to twenty minutes be-
fore driving him out of cover; then force
him to make stand in the open and do
battle.
How are they able to 'pick up" the
trail of a RATHER, all but imperceptible to
the Impractical eye, so lightly does the
serpent pass over the earth, and pursue it
unerrin gly through thorny pastures, and
COpses entangled with bull briers and
weeds Well, their art is a mystery to all
but themselves; it is the especial and in
dispensable part of their craft. They do
il, that is clear enough, and that's all
that the novice can intelligently discern
about it,
For a quarter of a century it was com
"a
in the Nutmeg state, but in the past ten
or fifteen years the country people-the
young folks especially-have steadily
swarmed down the hills into the cities
leaving the old homestead for good and
all: and no less steadily all the time.
nature, with her robe of greenwood and
her wild primeval brood of beasts and
birds has encroached upon the clearlngs
of civilization and resumed her old -time
sway in many forlOrn old hill town.
The rattlers, as well as wildcats and
foxes, and an occasional panther, glided
along in her advancing train of course
and it is an eloquent fact to-day that not
only is there more wild land in the state
than was the case century ago, but
rattlesnakes and predatory beasts are
plentiful in almost every quarter.
Fifteen years ago it was an episode to
be talked about for months when a Nut
meg farmer or hunter slew a rattler
this year not less than thirty-five or forty
big rattlesnakes have been taken within
the boundaries of the state. 1t is easy
enough now TO bag 2 RATHER on the crag-
gy hillsides round about this town any
time, and down among the Lamentation
Hills and the Hanging hills to the south
west, the hunting of rattlesnakes is CAPT
tai sport, too, aud almost equally as re-
munerative,
At the head of the RATHER tracking
guild, indeed, head and shoulders above
~ haF item - II
craft and skill is Dell Reeves, who is
known in half "a score of Atlantic states
as the champion of rattlesnake hunters.
Dell has hunted the ''varmints" for fif-
teen years steadily, sometimes for an
avOCatiOn, Oftener for a '.stiddV business .
he says, in the summer months, and in
that time has killed hundreds of serpents
so many, indeed, that he is reluctant to
try to compute the number In suspicious
weather, when luck is with him, and
especially if tracking is good, he has been
known to bag from three to half dozen
rattlers in single day; and, having gone
forth to hunt, it is cold day if he comes
not home like Little Bo Peeps sheep,
trailing tails, and in this case rattle
snakes tails, behind him.
He hunts rattlers with simply forked
stick, in Pennsylvania fashion, tracking
them across the field and moorlaDd,
through forest, fells and brier-grown up
lands, coming upon them Stealthily, and
nnally pinning them to the earth unfail-
lngly, and so swiftly that the serpent
dreams not of Dell Reeves until Dell's
stick is at his throat, throtting him.
Dell skins his prey promptly and drops it
INTO his bag, then swings his blanket
creeI across his shoulder and stalks on
with his stick, tapping the ground softly
with it, grooming Yankee DOODLE or
"Black-eyed Susan" so smoothly and
!owly that even a sleeping RATHER would
Cd inf ultnr11 h.a,. ntrl hi
song
Dell sells his RATHER hides to country
sports for goodly sum. Odd customers
these, with heavy, dropping, inky NOUS
taches, who aspire to be bad men in a
sporting sense, and can do it in no other
way with such a sinister and snaky effect
as Dy wearing rattlesnake tie or watch
chaln He preserves the carcasses of the
reptiles he kills, as well as their hides,
boiling them down into clear, smooth
trying it out" the process is named
IN the rural regions-which is splendid"
LOT old ladies' rheumatic" Good, also,
Ior Group or sore throat and stiff joints.
me queer hunter sells the oil TO
MlddletOwn druggists for almost fabu-
!ouS prices at times; and thence
~ IS shipped in part to other rural
Grug stores all about New England.
very little, if any of it, goes to city
pharmacists, however, for urban folks
know no more about its magic curative
powers than about skunk's oil, for in
stance, another remedial product eXclu-
SlVely TO be found on tap in country shops,
having an endemic reputation, like gin
sehg among the Chinese. But old coun-
Iry wives know how much it is to be
priced, and at this season in scores of
Oackencd and antique old country kitch-
ems IN Nutmegland may be seen a small
Pllal of rattlesnake oil freshly tried out,
hanging by a piece of Irvine or black
Unread TO nail 10 beam over or under
sle inantel above the blackened, old-time
But Dell Reeves. who for years hunted
IdOJlers exclusively in the hill town, is by
NO means the only traclSer of serpents
mere now. He has no fewer than three
Ur Iour capable rivals, and at least one of
oueih' Henry Lansing, is pretty nearly as
tApert as is Dell. For example, he and
ms chum, Ralph Kelsey while sauntering
a'ohR the lonely highway near Somersick
fountain day or two ago, suddenly
matted not far from a copse, almost in
slluVely, and Henry, who was a step or
TWO to the front, smiled the air signih-
ttIauuy once or twice, like a foxhound,
then said con6dantlv.