The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-06-23
SNAKE SKINS FOR EUROPE.
Pennsylvania Hunter Of Rattlers Has
Big Contract with Firm
in Germany.

A dozen men are busy IN the wilds of
Pike and Monroe counties, Pennsylva-
mia, hunting the deadly rattlesnake,
says the Philadelphia North American
of late date. They want 10000 of them
in order to obtain the prett4ly marked
skins for German firm which will
make them into pocketbCoks, card
cases, belts and articles of smaller
nature.
1t is the largest ORDER so far as
known, even given to a snake hunter,
and the man who received it is Gruf
fydd Jones, Monroe county's famous
snake king.
Jones has been in the business for a
decade, and has killed thousands of
the poisonous reptiles without injury
to himself. He lives in a modest little
home few miles back of Spragueville.
The first impression one gets of the
snake king is that from his association
with reptiles he has grown somewhat
like one. His eyes especially are Pc
culiar. They are a peculiar blush yell
low and gaze at you steadily, seldom
blinking, but moving slowly in the
socket. Jones is Welshman, tall and
blonde bearded.
YES" said he, 1T is true that I've
received an order from firm in Ger
many for 10000 rattlesnake sAlns, and
I'm going to fill it. I have a year in
which to do it. l know their haunts
well, and while they are sleeping
through the winter and my n en- will
have little or no difficulty in gathering
them by the score.
AT present 1 have eight men work.
ing for me in the wilds of Pike county
and they are getting about dozen a
day. I pay them a quarter each for
skins, but if it is a specially good spe-
cimen they get double.
lis it hard to get a RATHER alive? Not
bit. When l 60 a-hunting 1 put on
a pair of thick rubber boots and,
armed with q split cane, go right into
the haunts of the snake OF course,
I'm not reckless, and watch myself
carefully. AS soon as l find = trail I
follow It, and generally in sunny
spot l nnd my rather.
II work from. behind the snake as
much as possible, placing my split
stick firmly below the head an inch or
so. When I've got him fixed I soon
remove the dangerous part of the
snake, but I won't tell you how It's
a secret of mine, and if I was to give
it away my occupation would be gone,
for there are many about here who
would go into the business if the dan
ger was removed.
when l get 1000 skins they will be
bundled up and shipped across the
ocean. It's no ones business how
much they pay me per skin, hut you
can be sure it is a good price, or I
wouldn't give u2 my other job
Inquiry found that 1.-THE other job"
was peddling rattlesnake skins among
the summer boarders that during the
heated term fill the two counties. Jones
gets fancy prices from them.
The snake king tramps to the hotels
and generally has a couple of pretty
skins over his shoulder. The sight al
ways attracts a crowd and soon a bar
gain is struck. Jones gets from two to
five dollars a skin, and often gets
orders for dozen or so from the
guests.
His process of tanning the hides is
secret one, his own invention, and the
markings and colorings are wildly
preserved
1T took me some time to get the
tanning down as we'll as have" says
Jones, "and I've been offeerd big sums
for the secret"
There is little danger from a rat
tiers bite now" went on the "king,"
because the poison glands are weak.
In the spring, just af,er the reptiles
wake from their wi ter's nap, It is sure
death to be bitten by one No sure
cure. has been found"
Jones was shown the story of the
antitoxin for bites given in the news-
papers recently. He read it carefully
and said that he hoped it was true, but
he refused to believe it.