, 1908-10-13
Luck is good only IN baking bread. judgment is always good IN buying Supplies Fl
nd having your budding done by the Boston and Wyoming Lumber Company.
OLD GOLIATH
(By w. H. Bramel.)


age Of SinbAd the Sailor. He went to
sea in a ship. We VEN out Into the
desert on foot. Sinbad saw rocs and
giant serpents, but he was not able to
verify hts narratives by producing the
skins OF Inc serpents. we are able TO
show the skins of four. The person.
10 verify this narrative are Il. L. Nolf,
a mining man, Modena, Utah; Henry
Lund. a lawyer, Sat Lake City; DR..
Albert Wattmoor, San Francisco, Cal,
and others whose names viii be given
by these gentlemen.
I'D you ever see a rattlesnake ski
nine feet long? II not, it may be Seen
at the store Of a Salt Lake furrfer.
The serpent from which this skin was
taken was, when alive, at least ten
feet long; but Notwithstanding this,
he was by far the smallest of five
great serpents caught in that locality.
In the Smithsonian Institute at Wash
ington Is the stuffed skin OF a RATHER
thirteen feet long. In the British Mus
cum, London, Is one about fifteen fee,
.ong. In DR.. Wattmoor's office, in San
francisco, is the skin Of Old Goliath,
seventeen feet long. Even looking al
uhe dried skins of these serpents
makes one shudder. How do you think
we felt as we gazed upon the great
coiled kissing, living masses of loath-
some poison? A nervous, incoherent
shouting from Lund brought Nolf and
myself to the summit of the ridge.
Old Goliath was coiled beside a sage
brush, swaying his head four or five
feet above the top of the bush, hiss
ing and rafting. Nolf and I were at
ieast sixty feet from him. Lund cried:
Stand back, boys; he can jump his
length We took one instantaneous
look and fastened to stand back. II
may have been imagination, but even
to this day 1t seems as IL l felt the
breath OF that serpent when he Kissed
The San Pedro railroad was then
completed to a point beyond Acoma,
New. Nolf and I were taking our
things out Of a box car. It was our
plan to explore a mineral region OF
which Nolf had heard glowing reports.
lying about forty miles northwest OF
Acoma. Henry Lund, looking as II
time was hanging heavily on his
hands. sauntered up and watched US
work. He had finished his legal bust
ness and was waiting an opportunity to
return to Salt Lake, but the sight OF
the pick, shovel, drill and Dutch over
inspired him with an ambition to dc
some prospecting. From that time on
ward our party consisted OF three.
With our one pack animal We pro
crossed by easy stages from water
hole to water hole, until the evening Of
the third day, when We pitched our
camp in a gully on the slope OF . low
range of mountains. According to
Nolfs logbook, this laace was within
easy prospecting distance OF the forma
ton he was seeking. During the lat
ter part OF our journey We had seen
a great many rattlers, but these being
expected, attracted no great amount O.
attention. The ground in the vicinity
of our camp, wherever the soil was
sufficient, a covered with s~agebrusn
The rocky portions of the hills support
ed a few scrub cedars. No handtworh
of man, no traces Of cattle or sheep
nothing but hill and desert could be
seen in any direction. Exhausted by
heat and little knowing the nature OF
the inhabitants of that gully, we ate
our evening meal and hen lay down
and slept soundly.
The following morning We set out
to prospect a rugged "hogback' tina,
cut across the foothills above us. Abou,
a quarter OF a mile from camp our way
became boset with rattlers. They
seemed to be eyerywhere-on rocks,
behind bushes, everywhere. For a dis
lance Of about two hundred yards the
three of US were busy killing r~attlers
with stones and with the long-handled
shovel. I am not acquainted with the
nature and habits Of ra~ttlesnakes, and
l do not know whether they migrate
or not; but 1t seemed to US as II we
had walked into the midst Of a moving
colony of ~serpents. They appeared to
be moving across the gulch. Upon
Nolf's advice we all started for higher
ground upon the ridge a.ong the gulch.
The ridge was rocky and compare
lively bare of vegetation. AS we pro
ceeded upward the snakes became less
numerous, but still plentiful enough to
u anxiety. Nolf was in the lead,
clearing the way by killing rattlers
with the shovel. Henry and l were
a few yards behind him, throwing
stones at snakes along the way. A
rattle of the falling shovel and a start
ling scream from Nolf, who was almost
tumbling down the hill toward us,
froze us in our tracks. Nolf was
frightened. His face was as white as
a sheet He could not talk. He could
only point with a trembling finger.
There, fifty yards from us, we saw a
great, clumsy, moving body. We