The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-29
RATTLEsXAKEs FEAR BATS.
Get the shIvers when Confronted
with One of Them.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.

| With One of Them.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
| Abner Dodge not only hunts rattle
snakes about half of his time. but he has
I a snake farm, where he keeps, feeds and
fattens lean and the slender young rat
tiers that he captured into fat, lazy and
oily old serpents. His farm is among the
rocks and gravel on the lower sides of
Mount San Antonio DIETER known as
"Old Baby'O, and at the head waters OF
/ Lyle creek canyon.
Every one who has been I'm Los Angeles
/ or San Bernardino county any length or
time has heard of "Old Man Dodge the
/ king of the rattlesnakes." He is about
! 60 years Of age. and has been a hunter
Il and trapper in the mountains and on the
| Colorado desert for thirty-nine years,
| Abner Dodge gets his Twins principal
| ~ from the sale of rattlesnake oil 10
/ Wholesale druggists, and to a few local
/ manufacturers OF ointments and oils that
| are said to have peculiar curative powers
| FOR muscular ailments. Dodge also de-
| rives revenue from the sale OF the skins
and rattles Of snakes to dealers in GU
/ rios, so common in the tourist resorts In
/ this region. He sometimes has as many
| as $50 rattlers in his,snake corral whore
/ he fattenS them with certain food cal
| culated to produce more oil In them lie
always has sixty or seventy snakes IN
the corral in process of fattening. In
| good hot summer season he Will capture
/ 300 or 400 rattlers in the mountains ana
] along the edge of the hot, sandy desert.
! your correspondent rode seven miles
among the powders and along the trail
of the Lyle creek canyon the other day
/ to see Dodge.
II reckon" said the grizzled old fellow
/ that l know by this time a few things
/ about rattlesnakeA / ought to. | have
| lived next door neighbor to the critters
| for over twenty-five years. have got
| attached to them in a way, yet / wouldn't
| trust single one of them a second IL he
| was in reach of me.
I've got a rattlesnake out in a wire
| Il
! sell for the best horse and wagon in all
/ Pomona valley. He's become attached to
me- know. and j think a heap Of him,
/ snake. I've had him eleven years; raised
! him from the time he was half foot
7 long. and seen MIN most every day since
his fangs in lately, and / dare not trust
| him for moment. He'd fang me in an
instant II I gave him any show. That's
his snake nature, and he can't help IT,
Its the general impression that when
| a rattlesnake Is shedding his skin he gets
blind. There is no mistake that his eyes
| do get covered with a blush film at that
time, and just put a mouse In his cage
| and see how quick he'll coil up and hit
II IN the neck every time A rattlesnake
| ways strikes his prey before he eats It,
but you may fill his cage with rats or mice
| or frogs or anything else he likes, and
| he will never touch one of them unless he s
| hungry.
81 had my pet rattlesnake ten months
before he ate mouthful or drank a
been known to remain eighteen months
in captivity without eating or drinking,
and then all Of a sudden began to find
his appetite. When / put Jonah In a cage
at the end of ten months l put young
dove in with him. Now, there isn't any
thing ON the earth or in the air that
a rattlesnake won't kill and eat IL it's
hungry, and"
Except bats, Abner." interrupted a
mountain ranch friend Of the rattlesnake
| trcr xsfhn no a hnfrra HrnrtFtaI
in for a short visit.
"Oh, yes, except bats" assented the
king. 81 put a bat in Jonahs cage once
and thought he'd go crazy. He coiled
himself up in one corner of his cage
and actually hid his head All he'd dc
was to rattle. / thought the, snake would
never get over the nervous shivers he had
at the fright from that bat.
Eyes, / put the dove in the cage with
Jonah, just to see. what he would do. That
dove lived with the snake for FIVE years
I've often seen It and Jonah asleep to-
gether, sometimes the bird perched on
the snake and sometimes wrapped up In
, his coil. One day the dove got its head
through one of the meshes in the woven
wire of the cage, and before 1t was dis
covered the poor bird was choked to death
like pheasant IN a snare got another
one SO nearly like the dead dove that
no one could have told 'em apart When
! Jonah was asleep I put the bird IN tbs
cage The snake woke up along in this
afternoon. He had hardly got his eyes
, open when he sprang at that dove like
|
of her. He knew she wasn't his old friend
There is no telling how long an ANNA
| will live after being struck by a rattle
snake. and II may not die at all. ! hayl
| known rat to die within six minutes
after Jonah had set his fangs in his neck
and have known one, again, to live mori
than a day after being struck, / turned
a little bantam hen into Jonah's cage on
day, and when he struck her it make he
so mad that she turned and pitched int
. him so fiercely that she drove him into
corner bleeding like a stuck pig. i wa
/ afraid that excited little fowl would xii
: him and / took her out as soon as
: could. She keeled over an hour afterwart
and / supposed, Of course that she wal
done for, but she lived three days in stu
por and then gradually got we'll Tina
was the only instance ] ever knew of any
, thing ever recovering from the bite of
} rattlesnake without being treated for thu
7 "Except hogs, Abner," interrupted tn,
rattlesnake kings friend from up th'
Soh. yes, except hogs" replied Abner
! Lord yes. Hogs don't mind rattlesnake
any more than mind hies. l had an oil
SOW once--do you mind old Jennie, Bob?-
, that was a regular terror after rattle
snakes. She could find the trail of on
as surely as the hound can find the deer
| track. and she'd follow that trail unit
she came up with the snake that made Il
and the RATHER was her meat. If l coul,
| have taught that pig to retrieve she't
have been worth good deal to me, bu
she wasn't on the retrieve. She was hunt
ing for her own accOmmodatlon, and at
every snake she caught leaving only tn
| head. / used to find so many rattlesnak
} | heads on my tours through the canyoi
| that II began to dawn on me that my Oh,
/ destroying the snake crop, and i wa
; | forced to kill her for my own protection
"A human being seems TO be the onll
creature that suffers pain from rat
tlesnake's bite. Every other living thin;
that / ever saw bitten by a rattlesnak
seemed to act as II It had been efHoro
formed.
Il am a firm believer IN whisky 70
rattiesnake poisoning. have knowi