Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-12-16

bullet in my pocket before the chance
came to demonstrate that it was
lucky piece for me. The house at my
hacienda, like Mexican houses in gem
eral, is of one story, so that all its
rooms are on the ground floor. My
sleeping room opened upon long,
narrow hallway, with door opening
upon the courtyard. [ had occasion
one morning to go to the further end
of this hallway to get some business
papers that kept there on shelf. A
snake must have crawled into the
hallway the day before when the outer
door was open. L passed where it
lay without seeing or arousing it, for
the first L knew of its presence was
the loud buzzing of its rattle behind
me as rummaged among my papers.
l turned to see u six-foot rattlesnake
coiled between me and both the doors.
1t was thoroughly angry and was ad-
vancing upon me after the fashion of
rattlesnake that means to attack
lunging forward third of its length
and then bringing its coils up the
same distance-while its rattle in the
closed and narrow passage Rlled the
narrow place with its sound.
81 was clad only in nightshirt,
trousers and slippers, and there was
nothing in sight with which to defend
myself. The reptile was all the time
drawing nearer, and had covered half
the distance to me before I thought of
the silver bullet in my trousers
pocket and realized that my one
chance of stopping the snake lay in
striking its head with the bullet. 1
was in my boyhood very skilful in the
throwing of stone. and the art has
never left me. A thing that made my
chance little better than it might
seem in telling, is the rattlesnake's
manner of meeting an attack. 1t
does not try to avoid, but confronts
whatever threatens it, always turning
its head so as to face the object. I
chose time when, after q forward
lunge, it drew forward into coil and,
at six feet away threw the bullet at
its head with all my force. 1t struck
true, and as the snake half straight
ened its coils and writhed upon the
floor L stepped safely past it into my
room. After that of course it was
easy to make an end of the snake with
my pistol.
''The silver bullet had certainly
been my salvation in this case. 1t
was less than two years afterward that
it was the means of saving my life in
another and very surprising way. 1
was in chihuahua visiting the Las
Quesadas mines, in which L held an
interest, and on the day after my ar
rival rode in from the hacienda six
miles away, where 1 was staying, to
see the mine superintendent. He was
in the magazine where the explosives
used in blasting were kept. 1t was q
stone house, or dugout, built in the
side of q hill, and was reached from
the foot of the slope by steep path.
L started there to find him, and had
climbed the hill to the very step of the
house, when, in taking my handker-
chief from my pocket pulled the sill
yer bullet out and it fell and rolled
down the slope. L turned and ran
back after it, keeping my eye ON it as
it rolled, for l knew if I once lost
sight of the bullet my chances of find
ing it were small.
81 followed it to the foot of the hill
and saw it roll into ditch that once
had been used in draining a mine
working. The ditch was about four
feet deep, and just as jumped into it
and stopped to pick up the bullet there
came a roar like the bursting of hun-
dred cannon and shock that sent me
fiat on my face, stunned, in the bottom
of the ditch. When 1 came to my
senses 1 found myself half buried in
dirt. / got clear of that and upon my
feet, so that L could look around to
see what happened. Where the maya
zine had been there was great hole
in the hillside, with smoke floating
about it, and not so much as one stone
of the building to be seen.
'"The wreck was caused by the ex-
plosion of half ton of giant powder
that had been stored there. What had
set it off could not be known, for not a
trace of the superintendent, the fore
man, and two Mexicans that had been
with them, was ever found. The
shock and flying rock wrecked half the
buildings at the mine camp, and sew
eral persons there were hurt. You
can judge for yourself what my chance
would have been of ever telling this
story to you if 1 had gone on into the
magazine-if the bullet, falling from
my pocket, had not been the cause of
my turning back down the hill and
going into the shelter of the ditch just
rs the explosion came.
''This silver bullet is the bullet that
killed the bandit Tomas Viejada, who,
for several years following the fall and
Punishment of President Lerdo, ter
rorized Sinaloa and several of the ad-
joining States of the Mexican repub-
lie. He had been one of Lerdo's par
tisans and was very bitter toward who
ever was prominent as supporter of the
Diaz Government. The best that one
4. r