Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-04-02


Every one who has been in To
Angeles or San Bernardino county an,
length of time has heard of "Old Ma
Dodge, the king of the rattlesnakes.r II
is about go years of age, and has been
hunter and trapper in the mountain
and on the Colorado desert for thirty
three years
Abner Dodge gets his living pr ipci
pally from the sale of rattlesnahe oi! T
wholesale druggists, and to few loca
| manufacturers of ointments and oil:
that are said to have peculiar curative
powers for muscular ailments. Dodg'
also derives revenue from the sale o
the skins and rattles of snakes Il
dealers in curios, SO commol in thu
tourist resorts in this region. I:t
sometimes has as many as $50 iattlcrs
in his snake coral, where he fatten!
them With certain food calculated
produce more oil in them. Heafways has
sixty or seventy snakes in the coral IN
process of fattening. In good no,
summer season he will capture 800 OF
400 rattlers in the mountains and a'on1
the edge of the hot. sandy desert.
| Your correspondent rode seven miles
| dlhOliS tiit lNCi anu oiOhr 'iiN s't.il
of the Lyle Creek Canyon the other
day to see Dodge.
Il reckon" said the erizzled old tel
low, that T know by this time fc'.
things about rattlesnakes. l ought to.
l have lived next door neighbor to the
critters for over twenty-five Years.
have got attached to them in way
yet I wouldn't trust single one CT
them a second if he was in reach OF me
| 1--WE got a rattleSnake out in wire
bird cage in my corral that ] would no,
sell for the best horse ami wagon in all
Pomona valley. He's become attached
to me. I know. and I think a neap of
him, too. I've learned from that there
pet snake. I've had him for clever
years; raised him from the time he
| was half a foot long. and seen him
most every day since ] got him. l call
him Jonah He has got his ,angs il.
| lately and l dare not trust him for :.
moment He'd fang NE in an instant
| if / gave him any show. That's his
snake nature and he can't help it.
! 1t is the general impression that
when a rattlesnake is shedding hls
| skin he gets blind. There is no mis-
take that his eyes do get covered with
| blush film at that time, and just put
a mouse in his cage and see how quicS
he'll coil up and hit it in the neck
| every time. A rattlesnake always
strikes for the neck and he always
strikes his prey before he eats it, but
Won 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.
I hal my pet rattlesnake ten
months before he ate mouthful ~
drank drop of anything. a rattle
snake has been known to remain eight
cen months in captivity without eat
ing or drinking, and then all of sud
den begin to find his appetite. When
pat Jonah in a cage at the end OF t"i
months l put young dove in with
him. Now, there isn't anything Oh the
earth or in the air that rattlesna%e
won't kill and eat if it's hungry, and -
Except bats. Abner." Interrupted
mountain ranch friend of the rattle
snake king. who had a moment before
dropped in for short visit.
"Oh. yes, except bats" assented the
king. Il put bat in Jonah's cage
once and I thought he'd go crazy. He
coiled himself up in one corner of his
cage and actually hid his head. All
he'd do was to rattle. | thought the
snake would never get over the ner-
vous shivers he had at the fright from
that bat.
Yes, | 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 together sometimes the bird
perched on the snake and sometimes
wrapped up in his coil. One day the
dove got it's head through one of the
meshes in the woven wire of the cage,
and before it was discovered the poor
bird was choked to death like a
pheasant in a snare. l got another
one so nearly like the dead dove that
no one could have told 'em apart.
When Jonah was asleep put the bird
in the cage The snake woke up along
in the afternoon. He had hardly got
his eyes open when he sprang at that
dove like a flash of lightning and made
his supper off of her. He knew she
wasn't his old friend that died.
There is no telling how long an ami
NAL will live after being struck by
rattlesnake, and it may not die at all.
have known a rat to die within six
minutes after Jonah had set his fangs
in his neck, and l have known one
again. to live more than a day after
being struck l turned little bantam
hen into Jonah'S cage one day, and
when he struck her it made her so mad
that she turned and pitched into him
so fiercely that she drove him into
corner bleeding like stuck pig. | was
afraid that excited little fowl would
kill him. and / took her out as soon as
could. She keeled over an hour
afterward and l supposed. OF course.
that she was done for, with all that
rattlesnake poison in her, but she
lived three days in stupor and then
gradually got well. That was the only
instant ] ever knew of anything ever
recovering from bite Of a rattlesnake
without being treated for the poison
ing"
Except hogs, Abner." interjected the
rattlesnake kings friend from up the
mountain once more.
oh. yes, except hogs" replied Abner
Lord. yes Hogs don't mind rattle
snakes any more than | mind flies. /
had an old SOW once-dO you mind old
Jennie, Rob?-that was regular ter
ror after rattlesnakes. She could find
4 h. olx- . lx<