Nick Carter Stories No. 158, September 18, 1915: The blue veil; or, Nick Carter's torn trail.Carter, Nicholas (House name)
General
Nick Carter Stories No. 158, September 18, 1915: The blue veil; or, Nick Carter's torn trail.
Carter, Nicholas (House name)
Detective and mystery stories, American -- Periodicals; Popular literature -- Periodicals
Mr. Wing is a farmer, eighty-eight years old, while his wife is
sixty-nine. Until their farmhouse burned down, Mrs. Wing lived in the
house, while Mr. Wing lived in a sort of shanty which he styled his
“den.” He has been living in the den since, and Mrs. Wing has gone to
live with her son, whose residence is a short distance away.
Snakes and Snake Oil While Customers Wait.
About nine miles from Neosho, Mo., Adelbert Tibbins and J. J. Wilson are
operating one of the most unique “farms” in the country. This is nothing
less than a “rattlesnake ranch,” and this enterprise, which is conducted
on Indian Creek, being in a neighborhood where snakes are plentiful, the
two men are doing a thriving business. They say that there seems to be
an unusually large number of reptiles in this part of the Ozarks this
summer.
For three years the two men have been building up this business, and
now have in the neighborhood of 600 snakes in their pits, which are so
constructed that the reptiles cannot escape. The principal profits of
this enterprise come from the extracting of poison from the
rattlesnakes, which is sold at high prices to doctors, chemists, and
others. Physicians use this poison, after it has been prepared in a
scientific manner, for the treatment of epilepsy and other diseases.
Tibbins and Wilson also have a large revenue from the sale of live
reptiles to traveling shows and to museums, at the established rate of
twenty-five cents per pound. A large, fat serpent usually brings several
dollars. The smaller, poorer specimens are killed and their flesh
converted into rattlesnake oil, which has a steady sale at one dollar an
ounce. This oil is said to be a specific for the treatment of
rheumatism.
Most of the capturing of rattlesnakes for the “ranch” is done by the two
partners themselves. Seldom can they find a white man who will take a
chance on the rather dangerous duty, though occasionally an Indian or
negro is found who is willing, for a good price, to run the risk of
taking them alive. It is said that the best time for the hunting of
rattlesnakes is in the early spring, when they first come out of their
winter’s sleep and are still sluggish. They are caught by means of a
forked stick, with which their heads are pinned to the earth and the
captor can pick them up and place them in a sack.
When they intend to sell a live snake by weight it is fattened on
rabbits or rats. They take on weight rapidly. Tibbins and Wilson have
found as many as one hundred snakes in one cave. The same family of
reptiles will occupy a cave for years if left undisturbed, the two men
say.
Sportsmen Rescue Squirrel.
Joining forces, five trout fishermen in Orangeville, Minn., saved the
life of a red squirrel which was on the point of being crushed by a huge
blacksnake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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