West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1896-11-26


and fifty Don't tread on me s."
Leeve said the largest RATHER he
ever killed was eight feet long and
Us thick as the stove pipe for a
Burnside stove. 1t had sixteen
rattles and two buttons on its tail
aud was full or young rattlers.
When he began pounding on the
old one the young ones commenced
running out her mouth, and he
had to hustle to kill them rs fast as
they appeared. He said the old
one had swallowed the young ones
at the first appearance of danger,
and he killed twenty seven of them
from "a foot TO foot aud half
long.
Leevc used to have pet RATHER
that was very mnch attached to
him and slept IN basket under his
bed. One very cold night the fire
went out and the snake got cold
and crawled in bed with Leeye and
the old woman. Leeve didn mind
1t much, but the old lady declared
she wouldn't sleep with him and
the snake both, so he put il back in
It's basket aud covered it over with
a coon skin and rebuilt tho fire.
But the bottom had dropped out of
the weather gauge, and it was so
cold that the snake froze stiff be
fore things warmed up any and
Leeve hung it up in the loft till
spring, when it would come to itself
again. But it foil down and broke
in three pieces, and he had to
bury it.
Leeve's speciality is rattlesnakes,
and he hardly ever bothered with
any other kind, but one time he
ran across an enormous black
snake, nine feet long, that looked
like string of bologna sausage,
and he killed it and held post
norton examination to see what
was wrong with it. When he cut it
open he found two grey squirrels,
tive rabbits, two chipmHnks, two
robins and some other kind of a
bird with the feathers off it, so he
couldn't tell what it was. The
snake was getting ready to go into
winter quarters and had lain in a
supply Of game to last it till the
Johnny-jump-ups would jump up
again. Another time Leeve said
he was going to Morgantown to
call on his old friend, Hennery
Morgan, of the Post, and at a sharp
bend in the road he came on to
big black snake, stretched clear
across the pike and with lot of
birds futterIng around its head and
utterlng cries OF distress. The
snake had charmed .hem with its
evil eye and was preparing to feast
on the fcathered songsters. Leevo
procured club and broke the
spell, also the snakes anatomy.
When he hit it. IT'S mouth flew open
and live bird flew out of It's month
and escaped. This was one it had
swallowed ere his arrival.
I'eeve said he had only killed
two rattlers this year, as he was
getting too old to hunt them, but
one day last summer he took his
rattlesnake harvester and went to
the mountains for taste OF his old
tlmo sport. lie ran across party
OF huckleberry haryesters and
warned them that they were in the
enemy's country. Going on to the
den, he got on big fat rock and
rammed pole under it, to notify
the snakes that he was there. As
they came out he swiped them in
the neck with bis old fashioned
thresher until he killed twenty five
and piled them up on the rock. lie
went back and told the huckleberry
rustlers about il, but they laughed
at him and refused to believe him
till they went back with him and
saw the crop for themselves. They
SAID it "plum beat all, and was the
durndesS pile Of snakes they bad
ever seed"
Leeve used to have a pair Of tame
rattlers that he kept bellcd and let
run at large around his place. lie
bad pulled their teeth and had to
feed them on mush and milk. Ho
sold them to a doctor frem Phila-
delphia for ten dollars, and paid
bis taxes with the money. He
would never have parted with his