The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-07
TREED BY RATTLEsNAKEs.
How "ShOrty" of san Jose Surprised
the Reptiles and Escaped.
From the San FrancIsco an.

rum the san francisco call.
Kisses on every side Shorty" of San
Jose, was IN a quandary. II he went for
ward he might step on a RATHER. There
were rattlesnakes enough TO charm
snale-tamer. but did not charm ''shor-
ty." In fact. he would have been glad
TO get out Of the neighborhood he was.
Hiss-s-s. Hiss-s-s
Through the grass snakes were crawl
ing. Shorty" could hear the grass rua-
tie
He might have been interested Ia bss
Tie between two rattlers Of which ~ was
a witness, If he had not found his own pD-
sitlon one Of trouble. As A. Nas, ~ rapid
movements OF the Aghtinsssrafaesfs asG a
strange fascination for him Wheu tas
victorious snake struck the fatal b.9H
shorty turned to go away as carefully
and as silently as possible. shorty" was
no coward, On his way out o. The bushes
ne Kept his eyes open for snakes. E9e MAS
rewarded by seeing ratt-er ab0st =
spring. The snakes head was Up ard t1e
serpent was tightly co.ied. Is Soska4
tongue played in and out ana from lis
rattle came humming sound. z nOsfy''
struck the snake with the butt u his god
Winchester rifle. killing "a ia the act q
sprlnging. This was victory. bgt il was
AZ ttlr same Iife a 0Eteaf. 4DF the nose
started up other reptiles.
of from the bushes they rolled ia every
direction, stopping their feast upon fnc
berries with which they were eorgang
Then Shorty" saw for the hru time q
fiat rock which had been warmed fyy the
sun until Il was a very comfortable place
Tor snakes. There seemed to shorty 70
be at least fifty snakes on the rock. some
large and some small. They were q near
ly every kind TO be found in California
AS Shorty saw that they had all been
suddenly awakened he made for tree in
to which he climbed as soon as he could.
He was instantly out of the way OF the
snakes. They acted strangely. After
rolling their heads about a little 20 see
what was going on, the most Of them curl
ed up comfortably again to take another
nap on the warm stone
Here was a pickle Shorty" was freed
by hundred snakes and did not dare to
come down. He was in a tree with wide
spreading branches. He had with him an
old-fashloned powder horn with some DOW
der in 1t that he had bought as a relic 10
take home to San Jose from a Pitt river
Indian whom he met in the woods
When Shorty" found himself In this
fix he began to think very hard. He saw
that there must be some way In this sd-
venture to make of this San Jose day.
In Camp Call" The capture of a noun
tain lion by Binnie and Ned a few DAYS
before had left San Francisco with all the
honors of the hunting field up to date
The representatives of San Jose Fresno,
Oakland and Los Angeles were anxious
to get their share of glory Here was a
chance for Shorty"
Shorty" was not long thinking, '"The
old powder horn" he said, that Is Just
the thing. I will clean out this snake
den In short order'
dreaming of danger, all except one AS
shorty moved noiselessly around In the
tree his hands suddenly closed upon a
cold object. One of the snakes had found
its way into the tree. Holding the snake
firmly with one hand, Shorty" drew his
hunting-knife with the other. He cut Off
the reptiles head. He was so much In
haste TO try plan that he had made that
/ be did not care as much for this as he
| otherwise would have. With this knife he
cut a strip from his striped flannel shirt
| and prepared to make a cartridge of IT,
Some powder was carefully poured into
the flannel and then the flannel was tied
| up with a string.
Now" said Shorty for little sur
| prise party for the snakes"
Crawling far out on a limb until he was
over the snake rock, Shorty" made the
cartridge fast and proceeded to lower it.
His string was not long enough to reach
the ground, and so Shorty" did a little
gymnas tio act that he had learned at the
military school of which all the boys In
the camp were pupils First he tied the
string around his neck. Next he sus-
pended himself from a limb, hanging down
by his feet. His head was now directly
above the snakes, only few of which took
alarm and crawled away
80 far so good" said Shorty" as he
pulled himself back upon the limb after,
Ill Ia tf.f1 In, fr,.fo of
sun-dried grass near the rock. Now for
the next act"
He had creased the string with a piece
of beef taken from his lunch. Now he
proceeded to light the end of the string
as 1t hung from twig upon which he
had managed to place It, The striking of
the match was answered by Kisses from
one old snake, but that was all. How
slowly the spark crept along the greas-
ed string! 1t seemed to Shorty that
the fire must have gone out.
No. look therel The spark makes the
string smoke close to the cartridge. Then
there is a sudden fash that sends a cloud
of powder smoke rolling up into the tree
and hiding the view for a few seconds
from shorty" When the smoke was
blown aside Shorty saw the grass
afiame on all sides of the rock. In the
middle Of the flaming grass was the
snake rock
Upon II were the snakes, 6quirming,
fighting, vainly trying to find a way TO
escape They were gradually overcome by !
the heat.
The fire brought the boys in Camp
Call" to the scene. They soon put out
the fire and counted the snakes that
Shorty had cleverly trapped. There
was a round dozen of rattlers and many
others that did not count 50 much for
glory to the victor of snake HILL" as |
pinnie hun1orously named SHORTY" on the |
spot. tI
That night as the embers of the catnp |
fire smoldered and all the boys were won !
derng whether stout-hearted Daniel \
Boone ever enjoyed the wilderness better |
than they Billy Of Oakland, Sam of Los |
Angeles, and stout Tom of Fresno Won |
dercd also what they could do to uphold |
Hhe honor of fhAlr towns