The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-28
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ATT RAT T'LIESNAKES ]:
An Interesting But Forgotten Incident in the Life
of Susan B. Anthony.
(san Francisco chronicIe.)

sweet VI ldCS. -~4cl VI NI4hCoAS-s
Susan B. Anthony, with hair now white
as the ribbon she wears, can yet tell
of an adventure which befell her IN
the prime of her life which to this day
Is 4 memory so vivid that when sud
denly recalled it makes her stammer
and lose the thread of her temperance
sermon, or, If interjected into her Ia
vorite woman suffrage theme, would
cause her to meet defeat at the hands
of the veriest dullard in the argument
For II Is a fact that the grand old
woman Of America once ate a meal Of
rare heartiness in-which roasted rattle
snake was not only the piece de resist
ance but almost the entire bill of fare.
And It was after boasting for hours of
the sumptuousness of her repast that
there came to her the most detected
moment of her life.
But the story is not here told by Miss
Anthony herself. though herein is her
full acknowledgment of its accurate
truthfulness, but by the single witness
now living, perhaps, who is most COM
petent to tell of the details of that
strange meal because he sat at the side
of the lady and was also a guest. While
the heroine of the narrative makes her
home along the Atlantic board, its hero
has lived for near third of a century
within 100 miles of San Francisco. He
is Mark Regan Of San Juan. San Benito
county, stage driver by trade and ra-
contour extraordinary by profession.
Six miles from the railroad at Sar-
gents lies San JUAN its link with civ
iization is the stage line. and Regain
IS the genius Of the stage, who, while
carrying strangers, draws them sharp
pictures of life as he has seen il; in
fact. so delicate are the colors in which
he dips his linguistic brush that before
the passenger reaches his destination
ne not only has visions of the quaint
happenings of other days but life of
the "a 70 tai on n
and different glory.
Mark Regain was born in Missouri in
1S4I, but he did not remain there. He
was designed by heaven for the stage
business, and with youth he drifted to
MS element on the western plains. In
1865 he was a driver on the famous line
whose fifty coaches covered the noun
tains and prairie between Denver and
Salt Lake City. General Sherman was
sent west after the war to establish
protected line clear into Montana, and
Mark Regain was his driver on the ?. 900
mile trip. he was a witness at Fort
Laramie when Sherman made the
treaty with the Indian chieftafns. At
the famous massacre at Sand creek.
Colorado, he drove the ambulance and
was shot in the knee by an Indian. He
drove up to Codys ranch at Grand ISL
and, Neb-, with George Francis Train
just as the tourists on the first train
to arrive there leveled their field
glasses at Buffalo Bill and one of them
received the shot through the hair
which Buffalo Bill afterward defended
In court with the statement that he
would have no tenderfeet Bostonians
trying to shoot his daylights out with
their double barreled pistols" In 1871
Regan reached San Francisco, was en-
gagged by the Southern Pacific to drive
a stage from San Luis Obispo to Cayu-
cos, took sick at San Juan while on the
way and got no further south. When
he was again able to walk he started
a Concord coach with four blooded
horses between that town and Sar-
gents. and there he has remained to
this day, though the glory of coach
and four has faded to a three-seater
and pair.
During the twenty-seven years that
ne has personally driven the stage
twice a day to Sargent's. and once
tsometimes twice. day to Holiister.
Mark Regain has covered a distance of
504,440 miles at the lowest computation,
which is further than the moon and
back, and possibly the greatest record
OF any man who now whirls a lash
from the box of any western stage line
In all his long experience Regain has
never missed a train but once. and that
time was when the swollen waters OF
the San Benito drowned his horses and
washed away his coach, he saving the
treasure box by hooking it upon the
gooseneck before he turned to swim
for life. His passengers and thousands
will recall at sight of these lines tbs
striking individuality of the driver who
made them utterly forget the tediun
OF the journey as he held them fas-
cinated by the stories which he told
truthful stories. embellished only as in
within the story teller's license.
Noted personages have ridden witt
Regan and hearlxened to his tales HI
viii tell you of Garfield. of Grant. OF
others; but this is the story of SusaT
=. Anthony, who dined on rattlesnake:
and liked it for while.
Il never had a finer four than the
same 1 swung over the last division il
Colorado to Weber river in the UtaE
state, on the route between Denver anC
Salt Lake City" said Regain, as h.
pulled out of Sargent's and turned his
team down the road through the bee
fields. "They had to be good, becaus,
it was a swift run across the desert tt
the dinner station at Bitter creek. ST
was proud If my team that brigh
morning at sunrise. 50. when / helpeS
Susan B. Anthony yank herself up be
side me on the box. She had been on
around Denver telling the boys wha
heilatiOus bad liquor they We're drink
ing. and she wanted to get through I,
the lake in d hurry. And the result is
consequently, she asked me if we woulS
make good time that day, and thos
four buckskin devils answered he
AucSllOu SuldTL OlI- w z spun alOns
through the sand and the hens scootet
out of the sage and the blinkery owl
Topped up out of the snake holes t
watch us. Miss Anthony was so sat
isfied that she had TO hold on witt
both hands, and she only half CRIME,
at the best story / could reel off t.
her
Now that dinner station at Bite
creek which we were making for Ger
tainly was a caution. but it was pu
there by the stage company for the ex
press purpose Of keeping passengers
stomachs from caving in before the,
got across the Utah line. and as it an
swered that purpose. there was no kic
coming. Any fastidious body who di
not want to eat what was set befor
him did not have to eat, and there wa
no extra charge for him TO sit IN tn
stage and mediate on the difficultie
attending the matter of providing
Waldorf Astoria, bill of fare out Their
in the wilderness. God and natur
hadn't got around to the Colorado des
ert then. and the result was conse
quently. that anybody except owls an
snakes and may be jacEzra bbits had Z
catch-as- catch-can till they got {
somewhere else There was not
house there, only a s1ugout which wa
the dinner station. and a fellow name
Rawlins, who had given UP society
hired 70, 81