Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1917 — SNAKES’ NESTS CLEANED OUT [ARTICLE]

SNAKES’ NESTS CLEANED OUT

Pennsylvantane Probably Sat Record for “Bag" of Rattlera Constituting One Day's Work. John L. Klingaman, who never before knew any fear, so it Is said, was badly scared while picking huckleberries on Broad mountain, near Glen Onoko, when he stepped on a huge rattlesnake which struck at his ankle, slightly lacerating it, though not poisoning him, a Mauch Chunk (Pa.) correspondent of the New York Sun writes. The big snake coiled to strike a second time, when Klingaman heard rattles all around him. Seizing a cluß, he kHledthe one on which he had stepped, and then went after the others, which had drawn up in battle array. After a fierce fight he killed them all without receiving a scratch, and on counting them he found that he had killed nine big rattlers, the smallest of them measured three feet In length. He took the largest, 43 Inches long, with 12 rattles and a button, home with him. It was the biggest snake of the kind seen in thia locality in many years. While Klingaman was busy slaughtering one nest of rattlesnakes, one of his companions, some distance away from him, had an encounter with another nest of eight rattlers, killing every one of them. Rattlesnakes are.more plentiful In this section than In any previous season. Members of Company F, Thirteenth regiment, National Guard, engaged in this vicinity, have killed many of them this season. In one Instance one of the troopers was bitten, but recovered.