Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1899-08-17
SNAKE is USEFUL.
Northern Rather Has Ability to De-
velop Latent Genius.

4
Il have noticed a peculiar thing
| about rattlesnakes," said Simon Kent,
OF Clinton county, Pa, to the Chicago
| Inter Ocean, "and that is that If I'm
trout fishing and the trout are biting
good | am always sure OF running
| across all the rattlesnakes any rat
tlesnake hunter would care to find in
days foraging for them; but If the
trout are not biting | won't run across
a rattler maybe all day. | doAt know
why II is that there are always rattle
snakes where there are trout and
! huckleberries, and that there is never
malaria where you find that comblna-
ton of reptiles, fish and fruit. Instead
of a locality's being Stunned because
rattlesnakes abound there, it should
be just the place for people to seek,
because wherever rattlsnakes are
| found there you will find a healthful
region. | am speaking now of our own
| brilliant and up-to-snuff rattlesnake,
! and not the lazy, overgrown, vim
dictlve rather of Florida and Texas.
| Wherever you find an oyercheerful
RATHER giving forth his music and tell
ing you to watok cut, there you VIII
| find the purest water, the freshest air,
! the dryest highest land. AS long as
you live in a country where you have
| to kick RATHER off your doorstep
every now and then you needn't be
| afraid of chills and fever sneaking
| across your threshold.
Clinton county used to be the fin
est region for rattlesnakes that any
! one yuuld have found in a years
search. | can remember when the wild
meadows along some of the creeks in
the higher parts of the county were so
! Lively with them that the sounding Of
their rattles as you made your way
through was like the whirring on a
summer day of field full of the big
| locusts we call the grasshoppers. |
was somewhat of gatherer of rattlers
in those days, as their oil was, and is
now, greatly in demand, and one day,
in going across a meadow along
| Youngwomen' creek, | bagged 80 nice,
| fat fellows, that yielded an average of
SO apiece. That was before the days
| that rattlesnake skins had become
commercially valuable, or s. a snake
would have been low yield for that
| trip across the meadow. 1t used to be
so in the Leidy neighborhood par
| ticularly, that a farmer counted as
much on the crop of rattlers he might
gather while cutting his hay as he did
]
| lamentable decrease in rattlesnakes
in the county in the past 10 years, and
! the backwoods natives are not a little
worked up over it. They believe that
all the prescriptions that have been
put uq since Adam had his rih healed
and every ointment that Was made
| since Aaron had his beard oiled, can't
compare with rattlesnake oil when a
cure-all is wanted, particularly for
rheumatism.
Sometimes | think that the decrease
| IN rattlesnakes up our way is due
! largely to the big blacksnakes that
| have their home in the Black Forest
region north of us, but which have
| been coming down in the rattlesnake
| domain of late years to forage. Those
| blacksnakes are not anything to won
! der at if they are not 10 feet long. |
read in one OF our local newspaper
| of an old resident driving along one
of the mountain roads in the upper
| part OF the county, accompanied by his
/ two daughters. Suddenly the horse
stopped and tried to turn around in
| the road. The old resident whipped
! him UP, but he refused 20 go forward
ana began to rear and plunge. Then
one OF the girls, looking ahead, saw
huge blacksnake lying in the road.
She alighted and took the horse by
the head, while the father jumped out,
got a club and started to kill the
snake. The snake did not wait TO be
killed, but came rapidly forward to
meet the man. with its head raised
two feet above the ground, and kissing
like a steam valve
THE old gentleman swung his club
and caught the snake a blow on the
neck that Knocked the reptile fiat, ana
a couple Of whacks on the head with
the club killed IT, so far as it's power
for harm went but the thrashing
about Of its long body continued for
FIVE minutes after the head was
smashed That choice specimen Of
the Black Forest blacksnake measured
nearly y feet.
These blacksnakes entertain
deadly hostility to our rattlesnakes
and are constantly hunting them up.
The instant one Of these reptiles
strikes the trail Of a rattler 1t follows
! il like a hound does a deer, and the
doom Of that RATHER Is sealed The
! blacksnake Is as much quicker than a
rattlesnake as a racehorse is quicker
| than a canal mule, and the conse-
queuce is that much time does not
elapse after a blacksnake tackles a
RATHER until there Is one less RATHER.
| There Is nothing like a real good
ratrlesnake country for the develop
meut OF genius For instance, there
/ was Hiram folks used to call him