St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-09
A NIGHT SCARE.
Ay1aI<ens to End SquirminG Rat
tiers in His Bed.

Ayynl<ens to End SquirminES Rat
tiers in His Bed.
MANY years ago. while stationed
at a post on the Beaver river, in
Utah, said an army officer the other
day, II had an experience with rat
tIesnakes and scorpions. two things
dreaded so much by man. that was
so thrilling that it will be difficult to
make people accept it as true.
I'VE had heard many wild stories
about the deadly scorpions and rat
tlesnakes that infested the region in
which we were to work. but had put
them down as exaggerated snake
STORIES But when we arrived on
the scene we found that the tallest
snake story was outdone by the
facts. We found that the entire
mountain side seemed to be one
large rattIesnake nest. and for vari-
ETY. thousands Of scorpions were
thrown in.
My sleep was interrupted at reg
ular intervals by strange sounds, the
cause of which 1 readily discovered.
The canvas of my tent seemed to
amplify sound so that the scorpions
crawling on the wall of my tent made
a noise. which. if not loud, was start
ling enough to awaken me. 1 al
ways slept with lighted candle and
an army fork on the table by the
side of my bunk.
Il found that the easiest way to
kill them was to lab them with q
fork, then toast them over the can
die fame. The least number of
times 1 was awakened during my de-
tail there by crawling scorpions was
four or five times during the night.
l became an expert at killing sCoT-
piOns. and as I always fastened the
victim to the wall of my tent with a
pin l soon had it very uniquely dec
GRATED. I had one man in my COM
pany named Cassidy. He was a
devil-may-care sort of fellow,
feared nothing and was never happy
out of adventure. He amused him
self about camp by catching rattle
snakes in a clever manner back of
the head. then extracting their fangs
and letting them go.
a professor of an Eastern college
visited the camp, and hearing of
rattlesnakes being so numerous
he asked me if [ could not get one of
my men to get him two or three
young ones, as he wanted to use
them for some scientific purpose. I
knew of no one better fitted for the
work than Cassidy, and. as he seemed
to take a delight in it, told him to
( find three young snakes for the pro-
feSsor who was stopping at the post.
1 thought nothing more Of the mat
ter. Several nights after this l was
lying in my bunk sleeping, when L
was suddenly aroused from my
dreams by an unearthly rattle and
something heavy being thrown upon
me. I opened my eyes to find three
rattlesnales making all sorts of evO-
lutiOns over my blanket. and saw the
flaps fall as a voice said: Here, cap
tain, are your snakes.
Il didn' wait to take an extra
snooze, but, jumping out of bed,
made after the fellow. who was Cas-
sidy, and if had caught him l am
sure he would have nuTsed some
broken bones or bruises. But he es-
capped, and, after thinking over the
incident, my anger left me. I knew
Cassidy thought no more of a rat
tlesnake than l would of an angle
worm. He had taken the fangs from
those he had thrown upon my bunk
when he captured them. and. with
out thinking of the fright he would
cause, had pitched them in to me in
what was TO him perfectly natural
manner. He came around in the
morning TO explain and apologize,
bT1t il was weeks bafO1-a- nv nerves.
regained their normal repose."