The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-29
THE FIRST SNAKE STORY.
GEORGE MUSGROVE,S EXPERI-
 ENCE
With Blacksnakes, AddeEs and Rat
 tiers.

George Musgrove, of Glastonbury
 had an experience with snakes over in
 the Cat Hills near that place Saturday night that was quite unusual There has been more than the usual number of fires in the woods on the hills this spring, and Musgrove. who is Wiry, athletic man of twenty-five or thirty years, had been out with some thirty others fighting the fire It was ten o'clock Saturday night when Mus grove stopped fre-fghting and started for home. He had not gone far before he stumbled and fell into hole. Floundering around in his effort to get out he realized that he had some com panions in the hole that were not en- tirely agreeable company, for he could hear the warning rattles of snakes.
 There seemed to be thousand snakes in that hole if there was one, declared Musgrove in telling of his eX- perience q had on high boots, and except for that I don't believe there was whskey enough in Connecticut to have got me out of that scrape l could feel the snakes jaws banging away at my boots, and you can bet l got out of that hole just as quick as possible You see the fires had gone down, and I couldn't see the snakes distinctly But l knew that they were mighty mad on account of being driV- en out of their nests by the forest fires There were so many snakes in the bunch that I made up my mind to see ,s,tt 11,r|1 home and got a lantern and a heavy iron rake. When I went back to the spot not snake was in sight. l held up the lantern so I could see the hole and stuck in the rake Out came big rattlesnake and I smashed him with the rake. Rattlers kill easy, you see, and he was done up quick He was no sooner out of the way when out came two more, not quite so big, but just as lively, and went at them with the rake.
 q kept working the hole, and the snakes kept right on coming. It seemed to me I would never get through killing snakes. To vary the monotony, three or four adders made their appearance and I strengthened them out pretty quick But the hottest time I had with any of them was with a big black snake. I never knew of black snakes getting mixed up with any kind of snakes in all my life. But blackie that measured nearly six feet came out of that hole just as full of fight as the rest of the bunch They must have been Holding a constitution al convention in there. I made a crack at MT. Blackie and he made lunge for me. How he ever got around my boot leg so quick I can never tell you. But he got there and began to squeeze. I knew he wasn't a rattler the minute he began to squeeze. Rattlers don't get as big as he was anyway. Could he squeeze?? Sure. He hung on as though he expected to see me collapse under the pressure. I tried to get him off, and thought of catching him alive. But he was persistent and hung on. I finally had to kill him.
 II kept at the hole and got out few more rattlers, but they were small. How many did 1 get? Nineteen in all. Fifteen rattlers, three adders and the black snake"
 Musgrove says he is thinking of go- ing into the snake business as he claims the oil is valuable in certain cases of rheumatism Apparently he is just the man for the trade, for he says he can never remember when he was afraid of nake.-Hartford Courant.