The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-10-01
RATHER TRAPS
J. H. PRICE in
CAR SHOP PIT
Mistakes Giant Viper For
Steel Cr0wbar and SeiZes
It in His Hand.
REPTILE is SLAIN
AS 1T CHASES HIM
Marvin McLain, PiniOns Snake
To Floor as Fangs Reach
For Companion

After picking up giant rattlesnake
when reaching for tool in repair
pit at the street car sheds, J. H. Price,
foreman at the car shed and widely
known leader in the Woman Lodge,
yesterday afternoon narrowly escaped
being struck by the fighting reptile
and inoculated with the rattler's
venom.
Price and his companion, Marvin
McLain, had worked within few inch
es of the snakes resting place in the
repair pit virtually three quarters of
the day before the reptile was encoun-
tered.
They were working on a car while
standing down in the pit, concrete
hole several feet long, four feet deep
and the width of car track. The floor
and sides are of concrete
On the floor beneath their feet, a
heavy plank together with a piece of
steel rod were lying undisturbed. The
board and rod are used in doing Ger
tain kinds of work on the motors of
the cars. When the motors have to be
dislodged, the board is braced beneath
the car to hold up the weight of the
machinery till it is replaced in the car.
The instruments are kept in the bot
tom of the pit to be handy when they
are needed for that work.
About 2 o'clock, Price was in the pit
alone. He was beginning to remove
the motor from one of the cars he and
McLain were working upon, and reach
down to pick up the board with which
to brace the cars motor.
He showed it in position, and as he
held it in place, he reached to the floor
and back to where he knew the iron
rod ought to be lying. The rod was to
be used in making the board fast in
its position.
He felt along on the ground and
then his hand encountered something.
Price believed it was the rod and
seized it. He felt it give in his hand.
1t was soft and sinuous and the mo-
ment his fingers closed upon it he felt
it begin to squirm. The muscles un-
der his hand writhed.
In flash he had dropped the thing
and turned to see what he had picked
up instead of the iron bracing rod.
He saw giant rattlasnake quickly
gathering itself from it's resting place
alongside the iron bar where it had
been hidden in the dust. The reptile
advanced at Price, rearing its head
more than a foot from the ground
working its fangs viciously and dart
ing the snaky tongue quickly in and
out
The rattler's kissing alarm was go
ing at the same time and the snake
continued to advance upon Price.
Price was caught between the car
he was working upon and way of cs-
cape from the pit He had no weapon
with which to fight off the viper and
he was penned in beneath the street
car scarcely able to move about.
He called to NcLain for help. His
call was laconical in character.
Snake. Snake! Quick, McLain, hit
itr'
McLain sprang to the side of the
pit and threw heavy iron bar at the
reptile as it neared his foreman. The
bar pinioned the snake to the cement
floor and put and end to its fighting
capabilities.
After considerable difficulty, the
men succeeded in ending the reptiles
life. 1t was found that the snake had
nine rattles, which is said to indicate
that the snake must have been about
9 or 10 years old.
A peculiar feature of the snakes
intrusion into the repair pit was that
the RATHER had made heavy meal off
a large pet frog that the workmen
had reared in one end of the pit, where
there was considerable water. When
the first blow of the iron bar was
struck, it tore the snakes back open
and out popped foot and leg of
giant frog-iiust such Il frog leg as
possessed by the workmen's pet.
Investigation proved that the pet
frog was missing and it is believed the
RATHER was sleeping off his feast I'M
der the feet of the workmen in prep
aration for feast upon perhaps some
of the mems legs on another day.
Price, after the fight against the
reptile was over and he had escaped
declared he never was so
frightened before in his life The
horror of grasping the viper seemed |
TO dawn with full appreciation of his
,loSe call after the Serpent had hepn |