The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1921-08-27
SNAKE HUNTERS
ALARM TOURISTS
Reptile Study Club Is Met in
Its Spring Hunt.
CARRIES HUGE PETS ALONG

RRuopntS Sdy 0SIi0He Sc'e"'S'S
Drapes Himself About the Shout
ders Of Mrs. Williams, Wife Of the
Director, for the Benefit Of the
photoaraphers-society Is Trying tc
Prevent the Slaughter Of Harmless
and Beneficial Snakes.
DO you see what | see?" said one
chauffeur to his companion as he matt
ed his truck at a bare ledge Of rock
on the Great Notch-Montclair road
last Saturday afternoon, Raymond h.
Torrey recently wrote in the New
York Evening Post.
"Gleat suffering Aunt Maria !" said
the Lead of a family party In tour
! ing car as he halted, too.
More motorists pulled up and
stared, goggle-eyed. Two small boys
going fishing turned and their jaws
dropped as they gazed
A huge snake, yellow and white and
bronze, seven feet lDng and three
inches thick, was festoOne In some
what torpid folds about the shoulders
Of q young woman, who was facing a
battery of photographers. With them
were several members of what might
be termed, for the moment, the rep
lie press, besides dozen others.
It was the annual spring hunt OF
the Reptile Study club, 1t was a
rainy day, and any native Jersey
snakes had sense enough to keep to
their holes. The only reptiles original
to the locality which the members had
been able to find in the wet thickets
along the road were few tiny black
and red striped salamanders, dragged
squirming and indignant from the
shelter Of rocks overturned by the
gearcherS.
Mr.. Williams Little Pets.
But the director Of the society, Al
len s. Williams, who has held these
hunts for the past five years to bring
before the public the aim of the So
ciety, to- protect and prevent unrea-
soning slaughter of harmless and bene-
fetal snakes, did not want the report
ers and photographers disappointed.
So he brought along, snugly in cotton
bags and packed In suitcase, four
snakes from his private stock.
Two Of the four were serpents such
as might be found in New Jersey, and
might have been seen on this day but
for the bad weather. They were the
hog.noSed snake or puff adder, known
In exclusive snake circles as heterodon
platyrhinus, and the mountain black
snake, otherwise cOIuber obsoletus.
They were comparatively small and,
to give the reporters an idea of what
the reptile tribe can do when en-
cOuraged, Mr.. Williams brought along
the big fellow, a bull snake, from the
neighborhood of Brownsville, Tex,
which carries the formidable title of
pituophis sayi bellona, and the slightly
smaller king snake, also from the
southwest, which, though he would no
doubt be surprised to learn of it, Is
scientifically classified as orphibulus
getulus.
These two were large and imposing.
The reporters, hardened to strange as
signments, gasped a little and stood at
first somewhat offishly in the offing
when Mr.. Williams took old Mr.. Pitu-
ophis out Of his bag. But after he
posed about the shoulders of Mrs.
Williams, who is writer herself under
the name of Elizabeth Remington, and
behaved very nicely for the photo
graphers, they consented to festoon his
snakeshlp about their slightly shrink
Ing forms and were snapped for the
news pictures.
Making Snakes More Homelike.
The two boy fishermen stood on the
outside of the circle of spectators dur.
ing this scene. what do you do when |
you see shaker" asked one of the
members, seeking to impart lesson
In kindness to such creatures.
I'VE kill EN-" said one boy.
"Whyf"
cause they eat the fish. Oh, yes,
they do. Why onct when | was up
1t Bear Mountain park saw a water
adder with a catfish as long as that
IN his mouth"
wouldn't you like to hold this one
and see how gentle he ISL" incurred
ar. Williams, offering the huge bulfII
make.
Gosh-1op replied the boy, as he
'eceded in the middle distance,
That's the trouble with country peo-
'ie," said Mr.. Williams; "they are
loser to things than city folks and
ret they don't know so much about
'reatures Of the woods and fields,
sometimes, as city people, with ad.
'antages of learning from museums
ND lectures do. There are only twol
dangerous snakes in this part Of the
ountry, the rattlesnake and the
opperhead, and they are no longer
Ound near the citv -