Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-19
ANOTHER SNAKE STORY.
This One Was Caused by Common
Wharf Rat
hazing q Piucky Freshman Girl-Cosiiy Love
BY Telephone.

| ms oie WAS more tildH llNe leet long
handsome and lively and showing vic
| iousness and vim with every move
ment. Rattlesnakes are apt to bt
sluggish and stupid in activity, bu,
| this big fellow was always on the alert
and didn't hesitate to strike his fangs
into anything put inside his cage.
"One day somebody captured one OF
the brown wharf rats that abound
along the Boston water front. This
particular rat was not large one, but
| he had lots of nerve. He was put in
| to the rattlesnake's cage, as many a
rat had been before. They had always
been the ordinary house rats. though
and none had ever survived the strike
The wharf rat had scarcely time to
look about in the cage before the
snake coiled and struck. sinking his
fangs in the rats neck. The rat gave
sharp squeal as he felt the rattler's
fangs He twisted himself about and.
grabbing the snake by the jaw. closed
his teeth on it. This was genuine
surprise to the ugly RATHER. He
wrthed and twisted, and made every
| thing hum with the violence of the
play of his enormous set of rattlers,
| for the rat kept his sharp incisors bus
| lily at work until the formidable snake
| let go his hold on the belligerent little
animal Then the rat released the rat
| tiers Jaw and sat huddled in heap
glaring at the snake, who retreated TO
one end of the cage, where he lay and
surveyed the rat as if in amazement.
The rat presently began trotting to
and fro in the cage. looking for place
to escape from IT.
a quarter of an hour passed and
the rat did not show the least sign of
any effect of the rattler's venom. The
spectators were amazed at this. but
apparently not any more than the rat
tier was himself In fact. the rattle
snake. probably feeling that his su-
premacy and reputation was at stake.
prepared to strike the rat again. Be
fore he coiled for the strike he crept
toward the rat. his eyes glttering and
his tongue playing in and out of his
pant of rattlesnakes is intended to
strike their victim with terror. But
this rat wasn't stricken with terror by
this RATHER: no even q little bit. He
| moved forward and met his terrible foe
half way Quick as the snake was, the
rat was quicker yet, and caught the
| rattler's tongue in his teeth and bit
| it off.
THAT was enough for the RATHER
No member of his dreaded species had
ever been so bearded and audaciously
| treated before The big snake fastened
| back to one corner of the cage, and
was so completely defeated that he
did not even have the heart to spring
his rattle when the rat in moving ner-
vously about the cage. walked all over
his body But the rattlesnake recov-
cred in the course of a day or SO. and
he and the rat became great friends.
| 1T became the favorite pastime for
| spectators to worry the rat by poking
him with sticks. and when amicable
relations had been established between
the rat and the snake the snake used
to cover the rat from his tormentors
and spring savagely at them to the
| top of the cage, while everything re-
sounded with the clamor of his rattles.
The rat was kept in the cage fort
night or so, and then released. He re-
turned to his home beneath the wharf
on which my friends office was stu
ated. but every day came out and PAID
a visit to the snake at the cage, the
RATHER welcoming him at the lattice
with every demonstration of pleasure
| one day a. mischievous boy hanging
around the dock shot the rat with
! FIODeft Tlllt, anu uiu Niidt an Wv
rattlesnakes poison failed to do-killed
| the rat. 1t was interesting to see the
snake watch every day for the coming
of the rat. and when several days pass
| ed and the rat did not come the RATHER
| coiled himself up in his corner and lay
| there day after day. refusing to notice
food or to respond with his usual vic
iousness to the probings of a stick.
don't want to say that this RATHER was
pining for the companionship of the
rat or not, but one day when my
friends went to the cage and tried to
stir the snake up with his cane he dis
covered that the snake was dead"
THE girl Of my heart was haZed, last
fall" said a fond mother. recently. She
did not faint when the girls touched her
arm with biz Of ice and said they werc
branding her with an iron. She endured
every ordeal so smilingly that the girls
AZ last determined to do something per-
fcctly dreadful. They marched he,
through dari, halls bindfolded as sh'