The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-12-01
A A
An illinois Man Visits Atlanta With a
Snake Observation-Disclosures and Rat
tlesnakes for Pets.


A wagon loaded with snakes and
drawn by two white horses was driven
into Atlanta Friday by a man who has
been bitten two hundred times and
who has made a business of catching
snakes ever since he was ten years old,
| says the Atlanta Journal. His name
is Walter Ralston and he was born at
Galesburg, I'll. He has been all over
tee world in the twenty odd years in
which he has pursued his strange vo-
cation, visiting among other places
East India, the Figi Islands and South
Africa.
The wagon loaded with snakes
| stepped on Broad street. Il was a neat
! two horse affair, covered all around,
/ except in front, with strong white can
vas. Two small black dogs sat IN the
front seat and guarded the vehicle
| when the owner was called away.
A j1urnal man learned that the
wagon was full Of snakes, and Mr..
Ralston offered to show his specimens.
JULIO OD Al VAO "aSOAS HO 6LS4As
The body of the wagon was divided
up into a number OF compartments
with lids opening upward and all
locked.
The Il nearest the front Of the
wagon was about two and a half by
three feet in size and when Mr.. Raj
stOn raised the lid the box was seen to
| contain about two bushels Of large and
venomous reptiles, very much alive,
that raised their heads and sent their
tongues flashing back and forth. Into
CHS den of monsters the snake man
thrust his hand, caught up one Of the
girl would have f0ndled a kitten. Out
| of this box he took q smaller case con
tanning five tarantulas. He picked up
one of the largest with as little concern
as if a tarantula were not loaded to
the muzzle with the most deadly of
poisons.
"These tarantulas will eat out of
my hand" he said. "Centipedes and
scorpions will not live in captivity,
and rather than do so commit suicide.
The scorpion stiDgs himself at the base
of the brain while the centipede turns
round and clinches his teeth in his
body"
What sort of snakes have you
here's" Mr.. Ralston was asked.
81 have thirty five snakes in all, in
Guiding cotton mouthed, moccasins,
copperheads, rattle snakes, black
snakes, adders, chicken snakes, racers,
bull snakes, turtle heads, gopher snakes,
milk snakes, q Natal rock python,
fourteen feet long, that 1 captured in
Africa and a small python about seven
feet long,"
Mr.. Ralston opened another box
filled with snakes and took up several
in n hand while they Wriggled vigor.
ously.
From another box he took a rattle
snake four feet long and placed the
reptiles head Immediately against bis
cheek while with one hand he toyed
with the ~rattles, whose sound in the
field and woods is a signal so dreaded
az to almost freeze the blood.
From another box he took two cot
ton mouthed moccasins captured in
Florida.
This SNAKE" he said, lis found in
the swamps all owe the South and is
called the water viper. 1t is deadlier
than the rattle snake, it's venom being
an alkali poison, which c~irculates rap
idly"
Mr.. Ralston took out and handled a
little adder about two feet long which
was shedding it's skin and was conse-
qu6ntly las blind as an adder"
He will see all right again in a few
days." said Mr.. Ralston.
After showing the other specimens
in the wagon he said:
Nov, this is the baby" and he took
out the python which weighes seventy
five pounds. 81 caught him in Africa
eight years ago. He Yves then eleven
feet long and is now fourteen. The
largest snake in the world is the black
boa of Africa, which is said to grow to
be thirty five feet in length. The lar.
gesS n that I ever saw was in the
London zoo. 1t vas tWenty-three feet
long. The anaconda or water boa is
very common in South America. Great
stories are told of these snakes which
are pure fabrications. You see pictures
where they are crushing to death
great big deer with horns. The only
] donr thou nr11sh 10 q littln Enllom 49,