The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-09
SCOPES AT THE ].
 RATTLESNAKE.
ICoNocLAsTIC sNAKELoRE BY A
 MAN FROM TEXAS.
Power of Its Venom Exaggerated He Declares-Bitten People Who Re- cover--Animals Don't Fear
 Rattlers-Whiskey
 Not e Cure.
New York Sun.

Not Cure.
 New York Sun.
 ''You can believe 1t or not" said the little man in thesioud4checked suit. '.but. before that rattlesnake had stopped wig glin' the man was dead as doornail."
 He took long pull at a pair of straws that nestled close together in his glass. and glanced around with the tiiumphai air fl man who has just clinched a satisfactory story with a fitting climax
 The thin. lcng man at tho corner or the table looked up from under the ori'n of his slouch hat.
 We can believe 1t or not. think you said?" he inquired, mildly.
 "That's what said,'' reCuracd the ht- tie man. belligerently.
 Well. then, I don't" .said he or the sio,ich hat.
 q suppos- you were thefe and know ali about it." sneered tMe osier.
 ..Mayne I wasn't there at that partisu- lar occasion. Whats more. don't believe anybody else was. Why? Because. peo- ole don't die that way of ratiesnake bite. I've seen. lots of folks that know of other folks that saw a man die of rattle snake bise. but I never knew of but two cases that would convict the rattler, in q court os law. Not in Texas, anyway.
 "You're from Texas. are you? Perhaps the Texas variety of rattiesnake don't amount to nnuch. M& < ~
 "oh, we've got nine different varieties. and I guess they'll hold their own with any serpent that ever played the casta- nets," replied the Texan. Those varie- ties are all genuine rattlers The copper head and moccasin, and the barber-pole snake. which is a heap more poisonous than any of 'em, aren't counted in that reckoning"
 What's a barber-pole snake?' asked one of the other men at the table. "one of the kind you hear about while you're gettin' shaved?"
 'I'Hstef you that later" answered the Texan. ''The discourse that goes with this present drink4waiter. kindly initiate a board of inquiry-concerns rattlesnakes. If I were on a lecture platform, should entitle it. The Rattlesnake as a Fake"
 Fake, hey?" cried the little man, in excited tones. "Fake? Would you stand up and let a rattlesnake bite you?"
 No, sir; wouldn't" replied the Tex an. 'I wouldn't stand up and let mos- qiuto bite me, If I saw him first. There's nothing in 1t. But, I tell you, gentle men. the biggest fake unnailed is this notion that the bite of a rattlesnake is invariably fatal.
 "It's hardly ever fatal I'm willing to admit that if full-sized diamond-back rattler landed his fangs deep in an art cry, the victim would very likely die, but an ordinary bite doesn't hit so vital spot. and it's just about as likely to cause death as case of measles.
 "A doctor of my acquaintance has spent twenty years trying to substantiate re-, ports of death from the crotalus venora, and in all that time he has never found a single case that was positive. Two cases came near enough to fix the respon- sibility of death on the snake.
 an1 r1f rxyhh PHol friends scared her into mysteries. and from that into convulsions, because baby rattler about a foot long had put pin prick in her finger The other case died of delirium tremens resulting from two quarts of w1liskey in a stomach un- used to alcohol"
 That's 41i hearsay," objected the little man. Have you ever. seen any eases yourselfT .. t.-.j. -..-.
 ''In twenty years I've seen twenty-four cases. of snake poison" replied the Texan. That may seem a. small account for a country where venomous ssnakess aCe as. common as they are in Texas.
 But the fact is that aceidents~of this kind are very rare. A rattler doesn't crawl around waiting for a chance to tackle a man. He has other business to attend to. .-
 Unless come upon suddenly he isn't dangerous Even then he must coil be-
  sounds his warning Usually man who is bitten is the victim of his own careless ness.
 "Of the twenty-four instances that came under my own observation, two were those of men bitten by cotton mounthed moccasins and two by copper heads All the victims swelled up pretty badly, but they were well over 1t in the course of a week. Of the twenty rattle snake bites, not one resulted fatally.
 "Six of them were by big diamond backs The worst case was that of ranchman who heard an animal proving around his chicken coop, and went out with nothing on but nightshirt and revolver. The rattler happened to be hunting, himself, that, evening. He coil ed and rattled -.. ..a..,
 "The ranchman jumped the wrong way, and the fangs caught him just below the knee. They sank so deep that the snake hung on and was dragged into the house.
 The man suffered agonies for two days. It was two weeks before he was able to get around, and for several years he suf- fered from recurring gangrerous ulcers. In fact. think he never fully recovered his health.
 One of the other cases was a bite on the hand, which resulted in permanent paralysis of some of the arm muscles. The rest were of less result. though all of them left the patients with vitiated blood for a time .-!.- .-,-a
 Several of my observations were of men bitten by. the ground rattlesnake. This is the most dreaded of all by Tex ans. because it strikes close upon its warning. It is very vicious and it pre- fers to live near houses or outnouses As to it's venom, 1t seems less potent than that of the diamond back On the average it is not as large and its fangs do not sink so deep.
 "A young woman of my acquaintance was bitten on the cheek by one of these reptiles while opening a rat-trap for the benefit of terrier. The snake was. per