San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-06

+ TER life-or theirs; that was the
stake in the two-hour battle be-
- tween a Colorado mother and
field of writhing, eager rattlesnakes, and
, not until the courageous woman had
killed 140 of the reptiles was she able
to escape.
Mrs. H. H. Slaughterback is the wife
of rancher and theirs is a dry land
ranch near Fort Lupton, Colorado. The
rainfall in the state is so scanty that in
many places, either irrigation or "dry-
farming" is necessary. In dry-farming
the soil is so prepared as to prevent the
precious moisture from rapid evaporation.
This makes it possible to grow many
things, but, above all, it seems to favor an
unfailing crop of rabbits and rattlesnakes
to eat the rabbits.
People who live in such rattlesnake
haunts do not consider themselves any
drawer than other folks. Even the women
and children get used to the crawling
death that turks everywhere and do not
worry about it any more than sailor
worries about being drowned. Whenever
they hear a rattle they stop and kill The
producer of the sound as a matter of
course, just as they pull up thistles.
The Slaughterbacks' four-year-old
boy, Ernest, is not considered quite old
enough yet to be allowed to kill rattlers
himself, hut he comes in and reports
them. Then whichever parent happens
not to be busy picks up a 30 calibre
rifle or a stick and ends them.
A few days after the battle with the
serpents representative of this paper
called on Mrs. Slaughterback and found
her burning a pail full of rattle snake
heads. 1t would not be safe for the live
stock or humans to have such a quantity
of the fangs and. poison lying around. In
the ranch house were the skins, bodies and
eggs of the reptiles, because, having al
most lost her life in harvesting that hor-
Tible crop, the practical rancher's wife in
tended to make some money out of IT.
Not only were the skins of the ''hand-
soonest" being dried and cured, but
she was frying the fat from their bodies,
because rattlesnake oil is valuable and
scarce. Besides these-there were several
hundred rattlesnake eggs, carefully pre-
served between layers of cotton, and one
live reptile reposed in a glass syrup jar.
This last was for a present to a friend
some present.
Mrs. Slaughterback washed the dis
infectant from her hands and exhibited
a large water blister on her right thumb
WneTc TWO HOuIS VI lTdHIlC striking WIN
a stick had worn the skin away and she
explained how she got into such trap.
The evening before the encounter a a
couple of hunters stopped at the ranch
house for drink and mentioned that
two ducks they had shot had fallen into
a little lake about mile and a half
away and were lost. Next morning, while
her husband was away, the lady of the
ranch thought these ducks might have
blown ashore and perhaps she could get
them. She put little Ernest and 30
calibre winch s Ter repeater on
Brownie" the pony, and rode to the gate
in the fence that surrounds the lake II
should be explained that last Summer
was an unusually wet one, so there was
some real water in that lake.
Not a sign of RATHER did she see
or hear on the way. 1t was a warm
morning after nearly a week of cold
weather. Cold makes the snakes torpid
and harmless, but on a day like that they
are likely to be quite lively. Rattlers