Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1892 — SURROUNDED BY SNAKES. [ARTICLE]

SURROUNDED BY SNAKES.

Frightful Experience of a Ken- ’ tacky Farmer. It Turned Hl> Hair White . and Made Hie Wife Hysterical—Scores ot Them Killed, * » TimoffiiTGates, of Gates Station, was In Greenup, Ky., on the 11th, to relate his horrible experience of the previous night and to obtain the services of a physician to attend his wife, who lies in a deathly stupor, brought on through fright or by breathing the sickening fumes arising from the mass of deadly rattlers that surrounded them during the night. Gates’s cabin is occupied only by himself and wife, elevated some two feet off the ground. His three dogs aroused him from his slumbers about 11 o’clock at nigb\. He and his wife listened inteMly and thought they discerned the sound of many rattlers above the baying of the dogs. Soon the dogs ran under 'the house, aqd the hissing and rattling that was now heard fully convinced them that rattlesnakes in great numbers were beneath their cabin. Soon the barking of' the dogs ceased, and they were satisfied that their defenders were laid low in death. were their fears, and Mrs. Gates soon became unconscious-... They were afraid to get out of bed, as there were large holes in the floor that the snakes could crawl through, l and in tketo imagination the' snakes were in the room all around. Mr. Gates, well known to the citizens of] Greenup as a stalwart man of raven locks, was scarcely recognizable owing to his whitened hair, it having turned gray Jn a single night from fright. Dr, Howard reports his wife in a critical condition and, having the appearance' of having aged’ ten years during the night. Mr. Gate 9 reports that upon the light penetrating ills cabin so he could see he cautiously peered arbund, and. seeing no signs of snakes in the room, he got up, dressed and looked out in the yard, when bis eyes beterror to the stoutdst heart. There in the yard were hundreds of snakes lying lazily about, apparently unconcerned.- In .the course of an hour a neighbor approached on horseba<ftv,«stl. neaping the cabin, his horse stopped and would not respond to whip or spur. The mas heard Gates calling jflm and at tlie same timefirst noticed the danger that beset his path. Seeing the numbei>«f the monsters and knowing that it would he useless to attempt" to cope witli them single handed and unarmed, he turned about and gathered the neighbbrs in a posse, armed with clubs and shotguns, to go to the rescue the unfortunate Gates. This they did a,nd engaged in a war of extermination that lasted for* one hour before Gates was released from his cabin. Eleven dogs suffered death during the fight, and numerous others will die from the effects of the bites of the snakes. After the battle was over aw Inventory was taken an Ait was found that 141 snakes were killed, sSffle of them monsters, measuring over six feet in length and hawing fofiy-thfßLraltles and a buttoa. Several persons were made faint from the peculiar odor arising from the bodies of the poisonous reptiles. Hundreds of the snakes escaped to their dens in a cleft of rocks in an old quarry near by. Huckleberry pickers had reported that the hiils in that vicinity, which a® covered with bushes bearing tl»is succulent berry, were overrun with rattlesnakes to such an extent that it was dangerous to engage in gathering the berries. .