The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-06-24
HYPNOTISM OF RATTLERS.
AN l. INNING PR0SPECTOR TELLS
OF MIS- EXPERIENCES.
A snake That Held Him for Five Minutes by
the Power Of . starc-A Charge on u Newt
Of About Two Hundr az 'Em-The Rat
tiers OF Observation-Disclosures Proves.

vIGrD oil "
BOSTON, June 2,.-"It Is a fact that a snake
can bypnouze. He can hypnotic u grown
man just as easy as he can Il child, says
Perry Brigham an old mining prospector, VINO
f. in this city for a few days. 4 shall never
forget an experience one norman" when ont
on the plains not a great ways from Denver.
I was Flooding over the prniries. or rather
buffalo grass. afoot. I'd been walkiile a courlo
hours, | guess and ! kinder casually happened
10 notice what appeared TO be a stout stick
with the end Of II knottcd and rising up .
little over the grass. | paid no particular at
tention to il until. for some reason ] seemed
TO bear all my thoughts on to that stuck AZ
l looked again ! found | was looking straight
nj a monstrous Blk rattlesnake. lie hhdnt
ratified, nor given any warning. but There 10
WAS with his head raised up there. like Il picket
kinder surveying things aud especially me
MY, but he was a tremendous bs teller 1
don't want 70 exaggerate or any thing. but,
honestly, ! believe he was fully Us long ~ tins
billiard table. lie was running his ola tonHus
ont and seeming TO say. Well. what are You
going to do' Want a fiehtT ] Just stopped
stock still Didn't jump nor nothing for Id
seen too much of reptiles and things TO lot
'em excite me any l stood there. with my
hands at my sides and merely looking at
him thought, Well. ! don't know. old fel-
Ter, whether l want to tackle you or not l
don't know He kept a artins out his tongue
and looking directly at me.
-Tbere we was for I should think fully I'VE
minutes, each Of us sizing the other up. Each
NOT afraid OF the other, yet neither eager to
open battle The longer ! looked the more
IL seemed az II | was powerless TO move or do
-.. ,cr vnnrh ~ rad hut
I seemed to be attracted somehow Ny eyes
were fixed right on the snakes eyes and dont
believe that ! could have taken them Oh OF him.
The old Teller want making . move to attack
me. If he had think I'D been all right and could
have fought for all l was worth
1T was not, | tell you, the hypnotism %
magnetism Of fear. II was . feeling that l
cannot explain further than to say l couldn't
tnke my eyes OF of him. II l had been closer
I'm actually afraid | should have had an un-
comfortable impulse TO reach out my hand
and touch him. Then I'd got bit, sure's blazes.
We kept looking at each other until some
thing stirred of in the grass nearby, and myi
that sneak turned and went like a streak.
They oan go mighty fast when they're mind
TO. though IT, generally supposed that rattle
snakes are slow and sluggish.
wen, Int illIlhtf it ohlii'N wv WIZ "'
right. Been brought back TO my senses as 10
was. and | run after him as fast as could, but
couldn't keep up with him and he reached u
hole a few hundred yards OF, pralrie-dog or rab-
bit hole. I don't know which, and when he went
into the hole l got close enough TO see him and
he did a very peculiar thing. He didn't go in
head first as you'd naturally expect, OF course.
but it seemed as If he wiggled into it or around
a., a,,,b N fo.hinn that ha alunvs kppt his head
toward me. He sorter doubled you UNDER
stand, and got himself into the hole 40 that he
could be- ready for me If | made for him. l
watched him for several minutes more and
there he was, just so you could barely make
on, his ugly three-cornered head, laying there
at the entrance waiting for all visitors. Nov.
! want to confess that that there dirty. brown
RATHER had ma as much under the spell As any
mortal ever was by all the arts OF the ,Iroies-
sional human hyInotist. some folks claim us
snake will hypnotiAe any creature that WIN
keep perfectly still and watch the %yarinint.
Il was out about forty miles south Of Denver,
one day in 'se, In company with a carpenter.
when we come on to q perfect army OF %rattlers.
II was early In the spring and had Just got warm
quarters and into the sunshine. There was Q
sort Of a high, sandy place OF some hundred ieet
In circumference and the snakes was out there
n heating up. Oh, there must have been TWO
hundred of EN- al least, The air was just sick.
ening withthat stencil that rattlesnakesmake and
an inoessGnt rafting and buzzing.. don't
know scarcely what made me take the notion.
but says to my partner:
Lets go through them %fellers.'
IAN right. he says, and he took a saw from
his kit and l pulled out another.
We went TO swinging them saws and II We
didn't e. work ont With WITH, all the NE S',f onH ana dd 9En nss,
holy Moses, the stencil You couldn't stood
that stencil long. \ dozen times caueh, a
swung the saws SO fast and the danger was so
close We sweat like slaves. We must have
been ten minutes y9IsinG our way thrScHmshi
and scores more that hustled OF Though. the
grass. but when We got on the Other tide of No
space then M, saTs were S9ycred WIN vir"s ara ,Ea
Job again for considerable, didn't want any
thing to eat for q week almost,
in Florida s4tl n'Ipf was iD.t visiting IN 'H a relative SGl s'' WHO had
a place there, an orange grove. Ont back
of his house there was a sort OF q bower Ike, a
summer house ! guess yoq,G cal IT, lattice
suckle and such, ! put, away q big dinner and
feeling kinder drowsy, ! thought I'd. go out TO
that summer house and read or doze for a
while. | picked UP a book that was laying
about the room and kinder fell to reading. IL
was. one Of them sleepy, dopey yaller novels.
Vel, ! read on for a iIeII snd then gradually
fell ker-thoop, squash right down from tho
roof and not a foot from me. Twas u %rattlerl
I'm pretty bald, you see, but what little hair
I did have stood right no straight. now don't
you forget 1t. Got me? Oh, he'd got ns
easy T he'd meant to fight, but, by George.
he was for getting away rs quick as no
come. He started of like q flash and | after
him ! chased the crittcr "A hundred yards and
killed him. He was about three feet long.
Florida Is nothing much but snakes. There
are thousands of these water moccasinS. You
go out fishing and you can see EN- on the bank
coiled on the oyerhanging limbs OF trees ard
In the shallow water. They lay In near tho
shore with their body all in the water and only
their head ont Resting on n wig or log. lt3
too snaky a country for me. Why. they were
going 10 paper n room IN the house and Il seems
they mad some ektra wall IaTer they'd Ind
away III a closet. One Of the young woinel
stepred IN there and picked up a roll of paper.
She suddenly let out n sCreeCh that stirred the
whole house. mud WHOM run in there was 4
young RATHER nicely cooled in the centre ~
the room and rcady for trouble. | killed him
quick viii n broom handle and when we got
the girl Gained down 50 she could talk, We found
she'd taken the snake from the closet In that
roll of paper.
1T takes n blacksnake 10 trim n RATHER.
Though. A bllcksnGkc1l whip u RATHER every
time. and a .%rHttler knows 1t. Hell get out -
~" way and run from q hlGCBsnako II hc roe
sihly con. II b" get. attacked, he coils himself
ard sounds hi rattle A. vnRclv ~ ne can
and keeps his tongue going hui II you know
anything OF SNAKES and should eyer hauI eU 10
got n chance Ia watch n battle, you1l have an
IMPRESSION that the RATHER acts ~ II ne knew
II was likely 10 b. all day with him. Tho black
snake kceus going round and round him. just
~ a nugilst IN the ring keeps moving round
his man. waiting for an opening. The RATHER
gets more and more worried All of "A sud-