The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-09

haps. hunting that rot himself Anyway, he struck hard and deep.
 The girl nearly died of shock and terror but eventually recovered complete ly except for one thing. To this day at the sight,, or even the mention of a snake, one side of her face begins to twitch convulsively. andashe becomes Mo- lcntly nauseated. By the way. the ter rier chewed that rateler to ribbons. and suffered not the slightest i'll effects.
 Animals seldom de from snake bites. Out of nearly fifty Ed9gs bitten by rat tiers, only two died. Eve known of forty. instances Of horses being bitten, and not one was fatal
 Hogs kill zrattiers, for food. A battle between a hog and a snake is the most ferocious thing ina einabfe. I've seen. a full grown rattler fix it's fangs in the snout of a shoat and cling until the ami nal shrieked with pain; yet it ended by the reptile being torn to pieces and de- voured. Ae3-4.r
 T followed that shoat waiting to see him topple over and die. Mary topple. He just went on looking for more food of the same sort"
 I've always supposed" said the little man in tones that had lost their argu- mentative quality, that every other liv- ing thing would run from rattlesnake.
 That's a common mistake" said the Texan. Some dogs will, and most horses shy at the sound of the war cry. But a bulldog will often tackle rattler. The worst enemy that the torotaius has in Texas is the king snake which isn't even poisonous and is only half the size of a large rattfer. Some years ago saw a battle between one of these cu- rious serpents and a pair of dog-faced rattlers.
 "It was evening and the pair had been out hunting. I suppose. when MT. King Snake came across their trail. He went for the biggest. a five,-foot specimen. first It seemed unequal, as the attacking party was under three feet. But. strangely enough, tlfe rattler seemed paralyzed with fear, If I believed fin serpent fascination I should say that he fascinated his vic |stim. Se& t .s.
 "All that the rattler did was to keep his head toward the foe. He made no att tempt to strike. ID all appearances he was in a state of funk.
 Waving his head from side to side, the king snake crawled once3Rround the otn- CT. then he darted- For%A few seconds there was nothing to be ,seen but writhing coils in a cloud of dust.
 "As the struggle subsided I saw that the king snake had wound himself about the of his victim, and was tightening his coils. It was soon over. The little fellows coils unwomnd and he straight ened out The rattlier's neck was, broken.
 Tn all this commotion the other rat tier had made no move either to escape or to aid her mate. She seemed helpless from terror. If there was any resistance on her part when the slayer attacked her it was of the slightest, and soon she lay dead with her neck broken. To my great astonishment, the King snake crawled away, leaving his victims lying there.
 Well, I thought I'd discovered some thing new in natural history, and I wrote 1t all to my cousin in Boston, who Is big bug in a scientific society. backed it up with affldavits from various people as to my moral character and capacity for tell ing the truth.
 "All wasted time. When my cousin put in the report some snake sharp got up and moved to lay the affidavits on the ta- ble and take my word for the king snake. as a man named Mitchell down there had reported the same thing thirty years be- fore.
 That was my last attempt to put snake on paper. I figured after that that if I saw a hoopsnal;e with his tail in his mouth racing d bicycle along a prairie road and got it down in black and white somebody would turn up scientific re- port from Bacchus, or some other ancient with habits of his. own, and show that Rome fairly rotated with that kind!'
 Don't forget the barber-pole snake," came the reminder as the Texan paused to mediate on his wrongs.
 "Oh. that chap said he. "He gets his name from his gay stripes. He doesn't look dangerous beca use he hasn't got the flat head that we're told stands for dan ger. But the thing to do with him is to stand at a respectful distance and throw rocks at him.
 {, If he starts your way. you get un- hitched and move along He's a sort of cousin of the cobra and his bite means trouble I won't say it's as fatal as that of the hooded Indian reptile. I've never seen a case myself, but I know of a child who was bitten by 4he harlequin, and died in. a. few hours
 Dogs that will ta ckle rattlet moccasin or copperhead, win run, trembling all over, at sight of the barber pole. The people who live where it is common say there is no antidote for the venom"
 Isn't whiskey arsy use?'' asked the lit- tie man. who had started all the trouble.
 There's another fake" said the Texan, "the most dangerol IS fake of all. The one thing a man want to leave alone when bitten by any kind of venomous snake is whiskey. It sets t he heart working fast and helps to distrib ute the poison through the blood throughout the system.
 'The best method. If you're not in reach of medical aid. is 10 tie cord or hand erchief tight above the bite, cut around it and suck the blood. Whiskey for snake bites is about as good as carbolic acid for sunburn."
 But in a case like this,' suggested the little man amicably reaching for the bell
 The Texan arose and looked carefully around the room.
 As I see no snas es present" replied the Texan, and in the interest of scien- tific truth, I don't care if I do."
 MANEGOLD'S IhuAs BREW