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Show A SNAKE FANCIER. Telle About Harmless Snakos and j Sys Some Aro Usoful Batll Bkrpenti Could Bid a Farm of j'-v the Army Worm The ItatUort 1 fjoBactlmes Commit -'"A , Sttlcldc. t ' ,-- X; ' "It's a fikeme to kill those hoi miosis litUo snakes," said Rattlesnake Fete, when a reporter told of a recent trip to the country, where he saw a farmer kill several garter snakes. I'ete had just finished placing 13 new snakes into the caec adjoining the den of rattlers, which n hae long been the pride of his heart. "A soon as anyone commences! talking talk-ing anake," said Pete, "I'm right at Lome. Itow many snakes have I in nil Oh, about 75. Those in that side are all , poinonous, but these aro not known to be very bad." At this the snake fancier took from n bunch of reptiles a light brown snake with, dark Bpote on ite body. Pete explained ex-plained that it was a spotted adder, and was one of a new lot that he had just received. "The spotted adder can bite," sold Pete, "but there is no poison. As he said that ho opened the snake'B mouth with hie fingers and exposed a dnngerous-looking dnngerous-looking tongue, but there were no fangs such as the rattlers and other poisonous poison-ous snakes have. The new snakes received the other day were contributions from, friends of Pete's in Miami, I. T. The box in which the snokes came was marked: '.'Ilk poilnds of snakes, 85 cents a pound." There was no other writing on the box other than the address of "Pete G ruber, " which is "Rattlesnalco Pete's" more formal name. Tho box contained snakes of the fallowing species: Cotton-moutli Cotton-moutli mokes, copperheads, chicken snakos, copper-bottom and mud snakes. It will be seen that most of these snakes are very poisonous. The cotton mouth snake is similar to the rattlesnake rattle-snake in every way excepting the lack of rattles. It is said that these snnlcca nre more poisonous than rattlers, but Pete, who has had considerable experience expe-rience nursing snake bites, docs not believe be-lieve it. Tho chicken snake is a black snake, with red spots dotted here and there on iU? body, and is quite pretty. As Pet took one of them from the case nnd cx- nmincd him thoroughly, he rrmnrked I t that he guessed there wasn't much poi- oon about it. The copper-bottom snakes I . are similar to the snakes found in Flor- ida and otherVsouthern states. Pete nlso handled them with great rendiness, I but, in taking tho cotton-mouth, cop- porheftd and mud snakes from the box, I ho used more caution. While the reporter was talking to , Peto, a long box arrived by express which was immediately opened. It con-H con-H tnined a large, bright-colored taiqlce which in known ns a conch whip. Tt I was Roveu feet long, and came from Chndwick, Mo. The man of many snakes took tho reptile and threw it in w ith tho others and locked up the cage. As he locked the door he pointed to a four-foot snake which was curled up in one corner of the cage. He was a copper-bottom from Florida. He had just swallowed a field, or garter snake, measuring meas-uring about three feet in length. Another An-other snake in tho same cage had just been fed 1G small mice And one kitten a week old. In order to prove that the snakes would ent anything, Pete opened the den and placed an ordinary egg1 in front of one of the largest reptiles. His snakeship was not long in encircling the egg, and when he swallowed it he wub soen to tighten the body ns if to break the Bhell. The attention of Rattlesnake Tetc was called to a. statement which was published pub-lished from Cleveland, which stated that the army worm, which hod been doing much damage in the northern part of Ohio, had an enemy in the rattlesnake. Pete stated that not only did the rat-tlesnakcs rat-tlesnakcs devour thonrmy worm, but all snakes were fond of them. "If thcfnrmers only knew whpn they were well off." said Pete, "their garden truck would be much better if they allowed al-lowed tho small snakes about the garden gar-den which are generally killed to live, that they might devour the insects." Poto has lenown for 0. fact where snakes have gone through gardens and picked bugs off the vegetables. ITcnce his np-peal np-peal for the harmless little creatures." In speaking of tho nature of snakes in general, Pete wound tip the conversation conversa-tion by describing tho attitude of the black snake toward the rattlers, and in met all others, but particular the former. Pete has a large number of black snakes and rattlers in the same cage. When oneof the rattlers starts to devour a smaller snake or anything that the blaok snakes want, the latter twists around tho body of the rattler and squeezes so hard that he cannot swallow the object. The result is that the rattler invariably invari-ably chokes up whatever he has started to eat and movea slowly away. They never attempt to strike at a black snake. Puttiers often strike at object3 which they miss and happen to bury their fangs in other snakes, but in all his experience ex-perience Peto has never had one of these cases which proved fatal. Ilowevcr, he claims that suicide is a common thing nmong rattlers, ns only the other day he had a Inrge rattlesnake die from a wound self-inflicted. It appears ap-pears that about a week ago this big snoko turned slowly around when Peto wan standing in front of tho cugo nnd struck at himself. Its fangs were buried 3ecp into his skin, and in the morning no died. Rochester Dcmccnvt uad Chroniolc. :Ste Apples Stowed Whole """"" Takosixlarge red applcs.wash carefully careful-ly and put in a fruit kettle with just enough boiling water 1o cover. Cover the kettle, and cook slowly until tho apples nre soft, with the skins broken nnd tho julco a rich red color. After removing tho npplcs, boil tho juico to a sirup, sweeten and pour over tho apples. Good Health. |