Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1902 — Adventure with Rattlesnakes. [ARTICLE]

Adventure with Rattlesnakes.

Fred Harris, an express messenger on the Illinois,j£eutraj, u ai j an experience whU Jk he does ,nq£ care to repeat He was on train, No. 22, and Just after leaving Ccntralla, 111., settled back Into his chair and dropped Into a doze. He was awakened shortly by a tickling under his chin and drowsily opened hls eyes to discovered the colls of an enormous snake lying across hls Breast, Its restless head wavtng under hls chin. It is hardly necessary to state that Mr. Harris made all former records for instantaneous and lightning moves In that car look like six counterfeit nickels. He also awoke to the fget that while one snake is bad, several are worse In a geometrical proportion, and he was soon on a pile of baggage surveying a den of rattlesnakes. The reptiles were a consignment from Tampa. Fla., to Chicago, and had made their escape while Mr. Harris slept.