The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-20
SILL SNAKES BY FOOT.
,uoEITABLE INDUSTRY UP IN
RURAL NEW JERSEY.


NAV BRING Fifteen Cents Foot in
pniladeIphia-A Dog That Can Fol-
- "a snakes Trail-Art of Catch
49, Them with ForISed Sticks.
From the Chicago Tribune.
s.okes bought at Is cents a foot!
..l,,,own to the outside world, this &C.
+-,c commerce lately has sprung up
s.a in the thick, black heart of a vir-
~. forest of $500 square miles which
s,1ranhers have dubbed "the Jersey
Pines
r,en women and children are jealous
/, snake-hunting day and night. The
--ontiles are numerous and the profit is
seemed generous. The sport is exciting.
1+s nerils are sneered at. Not since the
IA DAVIS when bear, wolf, and deer
n.are abundant in their domain have
the forest denizens had such hunting.
II is a tedious run from Philadel-
mia The train had stirred up the
dust of twenty country villages and
bod stopped for breath in each when
tbe mixed aroma of sea air and pine
sranted ozone gladdened the nostrils of
several hundred tsuffocated passen-
GERS fastening toward the Jersey
Shore. We were crossing the frontier
of the great forest. Ten miles more and
three tumble down houses, CONSTITUTE
ing the village of buckingham, came
info view as a signal that the unpleas-
ant part of the journey was over. A
small boy in striped jeans, perched up
soI1are- f0nDed carrV9n
broad-beamed black mare, both indus
triously employing all four limbs to
thwart the advances of the ubiquitous
mosquito and gold-headed pine fly,
were the only live creatures visible in
the settlement. Verbal credentials hav-
ing been exchanged, I floundered into
the vehicle.
Before us a winding, narrow road,
paved with the white sand, the floor
of the sea which once beat over these
parts, opened into the forest. Turning
into this we launched into a jog trot,
the myriad pines, cedars, and en-
croaching oaks arranging themselves
ahead into VistaS with Kaleidoscope
variety. Here and there by the road
side clusters of laurel held their tiny
pink parasols against the filtered sun
beams and pond lilies peepei above the
red water of the cedar swamps. The
breath of wild magnolias blended with
the fragrance of the pine. A peaked
kentucky cardinal ventured through
the thicket to take peep at me above
the fern.
ANY snakes in the woods" I asked
the forest gamin. HI
Deed there iS-ornery ones at that
There's rattlers, swamp wompers, sand
adders, blacksnakes, and pine snakes
All of EN- is pizen 'cept pine snakes
We've caught a dozen pine snakes
Pop he ketched pine snake six feet
long in the guineas nest the other
day. 1t was full of guinea eggs. You
kin feel 'em in his stummick yit 1
guess he'll keep 'em there. till they
melt"
IF you see one along the road, kill
him. l would like to examine him"
I interjected.
Worth Nothing Dead.
Kill him? Not much. He wouldn't
be worth nothin' dead. I could git
Is cents a foot fer him alive off of
Ase Pitnan over to Misery. He buys
snakes and ketches 'em, too, and sells
EN- in Philadelphy. Lots. Of fellers
round here is. Water snakes brings
Is cents apiece; rattlers so cents. They
skin the rattlers and make belts out
of EN-. The pine snakes they sell to
fellers what run shows. I don't know
what they do with the Others"
1t was an hours jog over five miles
of sandy roads, but none of the hunt
ed reptiles showed so much as a pen
ny's worth of his. hide. At last we
pulled up at Bullock's farm. Peter
Brewer is the caretaker at Bullock's
farm. He has been a soldier and a
sailor, but has spent his latter years
in the forest.
ha& xyae
the snake business now exciting the
toresters, Brewer brought over for my
inspection a huge pine snake, six feet
long, which he handled with all of the
courage and Indifference of a side
snow snake charmer. He allowed it
TO put its head out of it's box, deftly
caught 1t by the neck, and held it up
While it squirmed and writhed and
tied itself in knots. 1t is notified like
the rattler, but in white blotches
against a blackish brown. No one in
these parts knows it by any other
name than "pine snake The largest
ever caught measured seven feet and
brought $1.05.
The old woman caught five-foot
pine snake the other day." said Brow
err nodding proudly toward his spouse,
who had just told me that she was the
mother of fifteen children, including
WV sets Oh Twins.
Yes" said the good woman. 81
couldn't bear to see rs cents run away
from me in the woods"
After supper Peter entertained me
ana my host with snake stories, while
tne whippoorwills sang in the field
across the road.
1t was agreed that should be driv-
en- next morning to Mount Misery, the
local snake market. A bobwhite on the
renee beneath my window awakened
me bright and early, and, the fast be-
ing broken, my host and 1 set out in
.le carry-all, taking a westward course
through the dense wood. Six miles of
sandy road had been covered when
whlte house doomed up in the distance.
Mount Misery village was in sight,
wen nigh the whole of it, in fact, for
tle settlement included only this house,
store and a log cabin back in the
woods.
How a Dog Catches Snakes.
~ Investigated the snakery of Asa
rIltman, to whose father, the owner of
the white house, I was introduced. His
snake hunting dog, Scott" a black
anu white setter, crawled beneath the
iouse at sight of my camera. This
Us according to the master, will scent.
t tle trall of any snake, and on discover
.i,s MIN Will seize the unfortunate rep
.lie py the neck holding him until his
masters approach. This is his newt
epie rule, except upon discovery of a
tdtCer Instinct tells him that this
freed of reptile is dangerous, and when
e meets with one he circles about him
a. safe distance, uttering a peculiar
''tk 70 summon his masters aid.