Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1907 — AN OVERSTOCK OF RATTLESNAKES [ARTICLE]

AN OVERSTOCK OF RATTLESNAKES

Reptiles Seeking “Dry” Territory and Migrating to Jasper County. Smith Newell and Wm. R. Bull of Barkley tp, were stacking millet Saturday forenoon when a rattlesnake that h«id been pitched on the load with the millet slid off the stack and was soon dispatoned. He had four rattles and a button. This makes an even 40 of these deadly reptiles that have been killed this season right in their neighborhood, on about 800 abres of land. One day 13 were killed. A few rattlers are usually killed in that locality every season, but this year more have been found than in all the years past and gone. In fact this seems to have been a great year for these reptiles in various sections of Jasper county. It is reported that 16 were killed in one day out on Dr. Hartsell’s farm west of town. Just why it is that so many rattlers have appeared this season is an unexplained problem, but no doubt saloon advocates will say that the reptiles are migrating to “dry” territory,' Ind unless we get the liquor dispensers back we will simply be overrun with rattlesnakes. The new patterns in Hart, Schaffner & Marx dress suits, at The G. E. Murray Co., are swell.