The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-13
IN A RATTLER'S Den
SNAKES DROPPING FROM ROOF
UPON THE LONELY HUNTER

Joe AwoLee to Find Himself Surround
ed by Angry RattIers, but Puts Up
the Fight of His Life and Wins Out
Cleaned Them Out and Skipped
for Home.
Joe Brungard, hunter whose home
is up along Little Pine creek, near
Williamsport, Pa, had an experience
with rattlesnakes last week which he
will never forget.
Brungard was on a trout fishing eX-
petition up toward the head waters Of
Otter run. a tributary Of Little Pine
creek and at least eight miles from his
home. He had had Indifferent success
and worked his way much farther up
stream than he had intended. During
the late afternoon a cold, drizZling rain
set in, spraying the leaves and soon
soaking Brungard to the skin. The in
dications were that the rain would
keep up all night, and as he had little
mind to make the long trip home
through the bedraggled underbrush, he
concluded to spend the night in an old
log shanty that was once one of the
buildings Of a lumber camp, but which
Of late years had been rugged up as a
! bear hunters SHACK" This cabin
stands near the bank Of Otter run, fully
four miles from its mouth, and is shell
tered by grove of high pine trees.
1t was dark when Brungard reached
the shanty. He was lucky enough to
| find in the cabin plentiful supply Of
split pine sticks that had been left over
by the last hunting party, and with
material from this he soon had rous-
ing fire going in the rickety stone
hearth. He Invested himself Of his
outer garments, stripping to his under
clothes so that the rain soaked clothes
could be hung by the fire to dry.
Jerking" on the end Of spit some of
the trout he had caught, he ate a
! "rougher's" supper, and then, with
the aid of a suffering pine torch,
he carried in enough hemlock boughs
to make a comfortable bunk in one
corner of the shack" Hem1ock beds,
to the uninitiated, are cruel things, but
to the regulation Woodsman or trapper
they form a downy couch on which
sleep is coaxed to the eyes iG a jiffy.
Brungard, piling the hearth high
with the wood, stretched himself on
He was awakened sometime during the
night by something heavy and soft
striking his legs, as though somebody
had thrown a dead cat or a sandbag
on him. But the thing that struck
him was a hundred times worse than
sandbags or old cats. 1t was a rattle
snake. The fire was still burning
bright enough to illuminate the in
terror of the cabin, and in the circle
Nf 1fCrI1E %1,,+ IL fhn frn
the new stary-eyed Brungard beheld
no less than three rattlesnakes on the
floor.
At that instant having drawn his
legs away from the dangerous COM
pany, he became still more Mortified to
find that there upon his hemlock bed
was coiled another reptile. Then it was
that he realized what 1t was that had
fallen upon his legs. 1t was the RATHER.
CHANGING UP to see where the ugly
thing might have come from, his eyes
met the swaying, menacing head of
another rattleSnake, eight inches OF
which stuck out from one Of the chinks
between the old logs.
Brungard, by this time half mad
with terror, thought only of escape. He
knew that he was in the very center OF
den of deadly enemies, who during
the day had taken refuge off the wet
of the cabin, then when his fire had
warmed them into activity the snakes
had bIindIy twisted themselves to-
ward the hearth, falling and crawling
over himself and his bed. How many
of the snakes were there he could not
tell. There might be a score or more,
for it is characteristic Of these veno-
nous reptiles to colonize.
Making sure then there were no
in n n
he had crouched, Brungard, half
crouching, half on his knees, took time
to reconnoiter. There was but one way
of escape-through the door-for the
two little windows in the SHACK"
were high above the floor, and their
deep sockets, for all he knew, might
be the resting place for more Of the
dangerous rattlers. His moving about
had aroused the snakes, and by this
time an ominous chorus Of rafting fill
ed the cabin, even louder than the
swapping stacks on the fire. Brungard,
too, could smell the nauseating rep
tiles, which, when confined in close
quarters, emit sickening odor.
He knew how quick a RATHER is and
shudered at the thought of an attempt
to get past the now aroused SNAKES
without being bitten, and to be pltten
there in that cabin, alone and far from
death. He shouted at the top OF his
voice, but the snakes only grew the
uglier and ratified the louder. Indeed
his shouting had the effect of bringine
still another snake from the ch1nks or
the hut. and it, too, went "ker-plunk"
down into the charmed circle to add its
danger signal to the rhythm of rat
Ting.
Poor Brungard! and to make the sit
uation yet more menacing, he saw that
the fire-unless the wood were shaken
down upon the embers-would soon
die out and it's light withdrawn from
the chamber of horrors, leaving him
alone with the snakes in the darkness
He was squeamish at the stomach
from the sickening odor exuded from
the snakes, and a cold perspiratioI
stood out on his body because of the
terror that possessed him. He half set
tied, half fell back into the corner, but
instantly he recoiled, for his body
touched something that moved and rat
tied, and involuntarily he cried aloud
for help.
But the very thing that frightened
him almost out Of his senses was the
thing that was to save him from hii
ugly enemies.
Instead of it being snake, as he
had feared he found that his back had
touched a stout hickory cane abou
five feet long, which some weary hunt