Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1880 — A Rattlesnake Concert. [ARTICLE]

A Rattlesnake Concert.

“ Talk about snakes,” remarked an old frontiersman, “ there are more snakes in Arizona than ever existed in Ireland before good old St. Patrick came along and gave them the grand bounce. Why, I have been everywhere ; waded Southern swamps when I would have to stop a minute, the water up to my chin, to allow a drove or school of water-moc-casins or cotton-mouths to go by ; up in the far Northwest and British America I have lived like a fighting-cock and to the Queen’s taste for weeks at a time on snake steak, but I saw more rattlesnakes down in Arizona one summer than ever before in my life, all put together. Down there they don’t go in pairs, clusters, or droves, but in columns, just for the world like the children of Israel got up and tramped out of Egypt with Moses and Aaron in the van, and Joseph, with his circus coat, bringing up the rear. I and a friend went over in the Tombstone country, among the hills on a prospecting expedition. There were rattlesnakes all around us, but they did not seem to be veiy savage. We would scare them up riding along, and they would sneak away from our track like coyotes. One day, about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we were taking a hill, and, as the ascent was very sharp, our horses would stop every few minutes to blow. Long before we got to the summit we heard a strange noise, or rather jargon of noises, apparently on the other side, and, if we had been shot the next minute, could not have told from whence it emanated. Why, it was worse than the average church choir. Well, we got to the top after awhile, the noise increasing every step we took up. By the time* we had got there it had become little short of terrific, and, looking down over the side we saw a sight that, took the cake. On a little plateau of perhaps fifty yards dimensions, about seventyfive feet below us, was a regular rattlesnake*reunion and concert. The ground and stones were just yellow with them, and if there was one there were at least 10,000 snakes in the gang. They were of all ages and sizes, and how they enjoyed themselves ! The two oldest king-pins of the crowd were in the center, and the other snakes were all gathered about them. Each and every snake had coiled himself up in such a manner as to allow their tails and rattles good -play, and they were all rattling away as if for wages, and their wicked tongues were darting out and in, keeping up an accompaniment to their tails. We looked at the racket for about a minute, and then with an awful flourish the rattling stopped. The two old snakes reared their heads at least three feet off the ground, and looked all around over the field in a manner indicative of a General on a battleground. After surveying the situation and apparently seeing that every member of the snake combination was readv for business, they sounded a note by way of tuning up, and the win le crowd commenced their concert again. It

took them about ten minutes to finish one tune, and we must nave watched them there through at least a halfdozen. After a while I got tired of the business, and rolled a rock down in the crowd. This broke up the meeting without delay, and, as several of the snakes were .crushed to death, the others set up an awful rattling, and crowded away to their respective dens. I have been among snakes all my life, but that was the first snake concert I ever witnessed. ”