The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 7, 1896, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 1896. 19 THEYRE AL MAISON DORES The most famous restaurant in the world to-day is the Maison Dore, on the corner of the Boulevard des Italiens and the Rue Lafitte, in Paris, France. It was started something like a century ago, and Las been growing in favor ever since. The | result of this fame has been to cause many other restaurants in different parts of the world to use the same name..In fact there are few cities in America without a Mgison Dore. Some of the institutions have been well worthy of the cognomen, but others are the height of incongruity. | To be sure, the Maison Dore that once did | business in this town was an institution that the founder of the House of Gold might well be proud of, but some of the others that are scattered over the South- west are enough to cause the famous ca- terer to turn over in his grave if such a thing is possible. The famous restaurant in Paris is the highest-priced place where food is served in the wor!d, and as a consequence the patrons belong to the nobility of Europe and the commercial ‘‘kings” of the United States. The managers take pride in say- ing that they can serve anything in the world at any time, whether it is in season or not. The regular table d’hote dinner that is served each day is 100 francs, or about $20. If one has things cooked to or- der the bill can amount to almostany | sum one wants to make it. If guests wish they can have wines served to them at $100 a bottle and can order strawberries in midwinter when the ground outside is covered with snow, and pay $5 to $10 a | plate for them. The decorations on the | walls of the private and public dining- rooms are by the best artists in France and cost several fortunes. The table service is all of the finest Sevres china and | the most magnificent cut-glass and silve: to be obtained, regardless of price. Taken on the whole, the place has been declared | by epicures to be the grandest eating-place on the face of the giobe. In strong contrast to the place just men. tioned is the Maison Dore that has been | at Gallup, N. Mex., for many years. Gallup is a mining town, so the customers are not the best dressed in the world, but they are fully in keeping with the place in which they take their meals. This establishment is in one of the most dilapidated shanties to be found on the continent. The cash value of it would not be much more than cost many times the price of the building and con- tents. One of the une xplainable things about this place, though, is that very good raw Eastern oysters could be had at all hours of the day or night. There are numerous Maison Dores in Texas, but some of them are only ordi- nary restaurants. At a place called Puerco, however, there is one that must be considered in the same class as the one at Gallup. It is only a board shanty in which & Chinaman serves some of the worst food that was ever cooked. The Maison Dore in Tucson, Arizona, is really quite a famous eating-house and the food is not bad when you consider the location of the place. But the building and the table service is almost enough to make a person go hungry until he gets used to it. To begin with, the building 18 an old adobe structure notin the best of repair. The outside walls are dirty in the extreme and the inside is most uninviting. Old creaking rickety chairs are making efforts to stand upright on a floor that is made of the roughest kind of boards and warped all out of shape. The table service need not be described. The most incongruous Maison Dore in California was for many years in a small town called Havila. It was nothing more nor less than a miner's cabin fitted up with a few tables and chairs. The pro- prietor and chef was one of the blackest Africans to be found in the State, and the food he served wasso bad that nearly all of his customers werea crowd of the lowest foreigners that ever came to this country. Maison Dore has always been a favor- te name for restau- rants in California, and they can be found in nearly ev- ery town in the State. Of the whcle lot in existence to-day, there is not one with anything about it to suggest the source from which it took its name. They are all ritted in a very common style, and the way they serve that saint. he mind betwe en *‘Cat and Fiddle’ and *‘Catharine la fidele’'! doubtedly the origin, and it is probable that when the sizn was first hung out it exhibited some sort of representation of One of the usual signs in But such is un- He was a sailor adrift along the wa" ter front, shipless, moneyless, friend- less. He was “less” a number of other things, but the above mentioned three will do for a charac- terization of his social status—if a sailor has a social status. The forecastle is ‘‘out of humanity’s reach.” As this man tacked and filled down the docks, zigzagging among the lumber-piles, hay, merchandise-cases, truckmen, steve- dores and other sailors, he looked all the wretchedness he was feeling. The chill wind blew his rags around bim as if to y,| show him that it yet remembered that he | had all hissea life defied its power. It chilled him, but he defied it still—from force of habit doubtless—and the wind blew around him resentfully. He floated along till he fetched up abreast of a ship he once sailed in and then sat down on the wharf stringer to look at her. He had no agreeable memories of her, a sailor never h Each of his ships is a part of the fleet of hardships he ever sailsin. ‘While he sat there, 2 worthless, owner- less, kennelless dog came slinking down the water front and stopped near the man. Like the sailor he was also ‘‘less” most all the things that go to make life tolerant and bis doggish instinct that he need not expect a kick from the human brute. The sailor was asleep. As he nodded om his perch his old hat fell off and the dog lay down on it, possi- bly because it felt warmer to his almost hairless body than the cold planks of the wharf. Occasionally the man would awake —sailors are light sleepers. The many calls for “the watch below” to take in sail when the sudden gale is npping the canavs off the yards keeps the gates of slumber ever ajar. When he opened his eyes he would see the keen, mild orbs of the dog fixed upon him. Then he would 20 to sleep again, and THETRIUADH OF THEWIND back with a long roll of bread between his jaws. He had probably stolen it from some doorway. The man took the loaf away from him, and the dog patted the wharf planks with his tail. Thisexchange of courtesies sealed their mutual com- panionship. if not friendship. But the warmth of their attachment, if it were of a higher temperature than the cold dock boards they slept on, never lessened the chill of the wind that blew into their comfortless lives, for the wind still followed the sailor that had always defied it, and the dog sharea with his chum its untempered enmity. The man found fewer charitable nickels that would buy the beer schooners that brought the plate of water-front soup, and the dog found fewer rolls of bread to steal in the wake of the early bakery-wagons. And the gloom of their nights and the gloom of their days overlapped in one continuous cloud that had no rift nor silver lining. Théy ken- neled together, slumbering in starvation and awaking to feel hunger feeding on their vitals. Early one morning, when the ships at the pierheads were coming out of the fog, a wagon went rattling up from the docks. It was not the baker’s outfit, but the dog followed it, his poor lean feet pattering along over the cobbles. The cold wind followed, too—the wind that hated the sailor that defied it—and it hummed glee- fully up the street, as if it alone had over- come its enemy and was glad. The wagon stopped at the Morgue, and the man presently slept in a place where the dreams of hunger never come. But the wind came in and sang its pean of tri- umph there. After a bit another wagon went ratthng up the street. It stopped at the Pound, and the dog was lifted out and roughly pitched into a pen. In a few hours he had had his miserable day, and the wind, re- membering that he had been the sailor's friend, sang also its pean of triumph there. ToM GREGORY. HOW NAPOLEON RAISED MONEY. Napoleon had the lavish hand of a par- venue, but his beneficiaries were not grate- ful, and with ever increasing insolence were always craving more. The systems of private confiscations or forced contri- putions from individuals had already at- medieval days was the “Five Alls,” repre- sented by the bishop who prayed for aii, the lawyer who pleaded for all, the farmer $2 50, and the chances are it would be diffi- it to obtain that much unless somebody was badly in need of kindling wood. tained vast dimensions. During the win- ter of 1809-10 it was extended and regu- lated; the sums wrung from German the animal, feeling that his efforts to- ward making friends food bas wuothing about it to make one think he is feasting The outside of the place is bad enough, but the inside is beyond description. In | one corner there is a rough wooden bar, behind which all of the cooking is also done. There is no floor, except the ground, and three benches made of unplaned planks do duty as tables. A few old nailkegs an- swer for chairs. The cooking done here is something awful. In fact it is not cooking at all; it is simply crime the way food is served, | and yet if people look at the outside of the | t ing they will see a sign that is weil | ainted in gold and black containing the The sign really | in the palace of the Boulevards des Italiens in Paris. It would be interesting to know why the proprietors of so many places have se- lected the name. Do they really have any | OLD One of the most curious results of the | was hardly visible, and finding himself | Swan With Two Necks'” was derived from | Maison Dore is, or do they simply take the name because it looks nice? There is | which no doubt but that the name Maison Dore | is the most popular restaurant cognomen side of the original place as if the copyists selected it as a joke. who paid for all, the soldier who fought \ %TTUC‘ON. ARIZONA. 3 e 8 modera decline of sign-painting is thutl idea of the kind of place the original | the oid name of some village is associated | portraits, was seized with a brilliant in- meaning. this is the sign of the ‘“‘Lion and the | n this country, and it really looks to a ! Fiddle,” merely a blunder of the last|count for—to whom else can we ascribe person who has even seen only the out- | painter from “Cat and Fiddle,” but even | such an enormity as the “S then its derivation is mnot easy to see. | for all, and the devil who took all. ENGLISH TAVERN SIGNS. theartistof later days called upon to re- | at the aguarium? The original des paint the sign on which the old design | had no such desire to be original. “The unequal to the task of producing the five Necks,”” a bird which can be suitable for There is no immediate connection in | nothing else than to be the latest novelty | hands clasping one another. But S been such a Phili: an With Two | sign of the old the fact that all swankerds pelled to cut a certain number of necks on with an entirely fresh design—a design | spiration and substituted five shoemakers’ | the beaks of cygnets, in order to identify hopelessly obliterates the original \ awls—thus, as he fondly 1magined, leaving | them, and two such marks may have been A very common example of | both the name and the sense unaltered. | the sign of the lord of the manor. Again, Painters undoubtedly have much to ac- | Who but an incapable painter would have ne as to change the “Salutation Inn” into the commonplace representatian of two with the man were unresented, would pat the planks with his tail for joy of the thought. Then he went to sleep by the side of the slumbering biped and night spread its gloom over the ! dreary waifs. Toward morning when the ships were beginning to.come out of the darkness, and the bakery wagons were jarring on the cobbles, the dogarose. He stretched gner were com- the thin, poor blood began to run faster through his lean body and tken slunk off down the dock. Pretty soon he came | Princes and Spanish grandees, from Eng- lish merchants and the Italian clergy, were not entirely exhausted; the remain- der, together with what was ‘“accepted” from timorous politicians, craity ecclesias- tics, sly contractors and unprincipled financiers, was now erected into the dig- nity of the Emperor’s ‘‘extraordinary do- main.” The term ‘‘army chest” had been devig d for times of righer public moral- ity ; it was now discarded. Confiscated palaces, forests, lands, fisheries, moneys nimself first forward, and then back, Hll | £ " ho sale of American ships—all were now the Emperor's privaie property. Sloane's “Life of Napoleon” in the Cen- tary. l FORCHER STUDE§ 6F CHE CALF6RNA SNAKE BY THOSE WHO AAVE MET HIM. A Monster That Is Fiercer Than the Lust for Gold. Told by Arthur S. Clarke. Old residents of that section of San Diego whose homes are contignous to the slope of Smith Mountain asserted that nusually large and ferocious-looking had his home somewhere in thai ood. Asmany tales were told of ere were natives of that region. The hentic description of the rentile comes mas Palmer of Ontario, an old-time t of San Diego County, who is responsi- sl for the following contribution io current n literature: was prospecting at the head of a deep yon,” began Mr. Palmer, “and in looking color’ in the gravel of the dry creek bed I was startled by noticing & trail that looked as f it might have been made by dragginga arge pole in a zigzag course over the sand. I ollowed it up the side of the canyon and down other, when the trail was suddenly lost in a ge crevice in the rocks. This was about ten velow me. Lying down on the rocks I k my head over the cliff, and in so doing ened a small boulder that started crashing lown through the brush. +As T looked I began to feel my hairrise, and ivers crept up and down my spine asifI- 1ad the ague. There was projected out of that revice below me the most hideous-looking make’s head I ever saw. The biggest kind of er wasn't even a small episode compared vith it. The head was raised at least two feet (bove the ground, as if in a listening attitude. t was almost round, and must have been five )r six inches broad, with massive jaws and parkling eyes that seemed unusually large or the rest of its physiognomy. From the up- ser jaw two vicious white fangs protruded. ¥hen the reptile’s moyth was shut these fangs till projected an inch below the lower jaw, nd were hooked like a cat’s claw “As much s six feet of the snake’s body was xposed to view; how much was under the ock can only be conjectured. It was of a light rown color, and looked to be seven inches in tiameter in the largest part visible. «I had no weapon with me, and I wasn't ankering to find out how much of the snake sas concealed. The derned thing fixed its orrible eyes on me and began to giide up the aountain side. AsIhadn’tlost any snakes I 1so glided. “There's ‘pay dirt’ in the canyon, butitis 00 well guarded for me ever to get any of it.” S Xt An Awful light With an Unknown Kind of Reptile. The Experience of Charles W. Bell. Fifteen years ago, when Pasadena wasstill a olony, two young men, E. E. Fordham and harles W. Bell—the latter of whom is now & eputy in the County Supervisors' office— rected a small tent and went to ‘‘batching” 1 the midst of & wild stubble field, where now esone of the principal residence streets of asadens and almost upon the very spot where s the palatial residence of the late Frank L. Vallette. he boys swung in their hammocks, sus- ended under two stunted apricot trees, until e, and went to bed without a light. Suddenly in the might young Bell was awak- ned by & strange feeling of suffocation. His hest seemed burdened with a heavy weight, hich made breathing almost impossible; h mbs were rigid and he felt & cold perspira- on breaking out from every pore of his body, ccompanied by prickling seusation of hor- or and a nausea, for which, il his half-uncon- *ious condition, he could not account. As ¢ gathered his wits somewhat he believed imself suffering from some terrible night- 1are. Exerting all his will power he raised is arm to break the spell and throw off, if véxible, the terrible oppression on his chest, hen what was his horror at finding his hand in contact with the huge, cold and slimy body of an immense snake, which had coiled itself upon his body, and, in the boy's fright, as- sumed the proportions of an anaconda. With a shriek of terror and with a super- Y human effort he sprang from his bunk and J\ companion, who had been butlightly sleeping, awoke &t bis friend’s cry and hastily struck a light, and the terrified boys saw a long black suake slowly writhing its way toward an open- ing in the side of & tent. Young Bell, who was something of an athlete, seized an Indian club near his bench, and with unerring aim crushed the serpent’s head. The snake measured 4 teet 5 inches, and was-of & species seldom seen in this locality. Mr. Bell still has its skin, which he shows his friends when he some- times relates this anecdote, and vividly re- tains the memory of what he considers one of the most frightful experiences of his boyhood. A Rattlesnake That Was Led Through the Streets of Pomona. Related by S. M. Hoskell. A few days ago a Mexican was exhibiting on the streets of Pomona a rattlesnake that he had captured in oue of the neighboring can- yons. He was leading the snake around by a cord of horsehair fastened about its neck and tied to the end of a sharp rod or walking-stick. Some Mexicans are expertsat catching rat- tlers, They always take them alive if they can,and they seldom fail, for 1t is a lively snake that can escape them when they are armed for the fray. If they cannot sell their captive alive they kill it and sell the <kin at & good price for a hatband or a belt. The snake in question was & rare specimen. Ic was about three feet long, plump and sleek and almost as black as coal. Nobody had ever seen & black rattler before. One man declared that it was no rattlesnake because it was black. One of the interested spectators, who had been looking the snake over carefully but had said nothing, was Jacob Morency, an old mining prospector who has traveled over nearly all of the mineral regions of Southern California and Mexico. The man who scouted the idea of a rattlesnake being black turned to Morency and said: “What do you think about it, Jake' “Well,” said the latter, “you’d better not let him bite you, unless you’re ready to pay your debts, say your prayers and die; for he's a rattler all right enough. A rattlesnake is not like a chameleon exactly—they can’t change their color in the twinkling of an eye—but they Jare of & greater variety of colors than cows are. Thave seen them of every color imaginable, and always of the same color as the soil or rocks in which they are found, and the diamond-shaped spots on their sides and back are sometimes lighter and sometimes darker than the rest. I oncesaw a rattlesnake, caught in a canyon in Lower California, near San Fernando, that was almost as black as jet, and the diamond spots were lined with white. Two years ago I killed a rattler in Paria Valley, in Northern Arizona, that was three and a half feet long and of a deep red color, with diamonds of jet black. I think it was the handsomest snake I ever saw. Ihave his skin yet. Jn another valley mnot more than forty miles from there Isaw rattle- snakes as yellow as ocher, with reddish dia- monds. Brown rattlesnakes with dark spots are the most common. But the queerest look- ing rattler I ever saw a friend of mine and I caught in Lower California five or six years ago. We were riding along the western coast of the peninsula about opposite Guadalupe wher we came upon a rattlesnake as white as milk, with faint black lines outlining the dia- mond spots. It was the only white one I ever saw, though I have seen many very light col- ored. It had simply taken on the color of the white rocks and sands where it lived. We cap- tured it alive and took it to San Diego and sold it for $25 to a man named King, who was gath- ering rare specimens of reptiles and insects for some Eastern institution.” Pomona, Cal., May 29, 1896. The Plumas County Python Seen by a ,:(% Truthful Man. e S ’ Been by Jack Fog ¥ and Told by Marcy. Every heart has its silent sorrow, and Jack Fogarty of Quincy, Plumas County, was no ex- ception to the rule. Pioneer, stage-driver, freighter and miner, a walking encyclopedia of turf records and genealogy, and & truthful man, he had been given a sight of the improb- able and the world had cast discredit on his statements and brought bitterness to his heart. While hunting for grouse on Claremont his attention was drawn to a furrow in the dusty trail, “‘as if some one had drug a calf acrost it. 1 thought,” said he, “it was a b'ar or cougar had drug a deer into the thicket, and I follered it to the edge of the brush an’ looked in. Thar around a log I see twisted something yaller an’ black an’ ’slarge round as a pickle keg. I started round the end of the brush, whar I could git & better look, when right in front of me, sticking up seven or eight feet over the tops of the bushes, was & snake’s head an’ part of his body a-movin' to one side an’ the other, his head as big as a waierpail, an’ his tongue like the forks of a saplin’ stick- ing out an’ him a-hissin’. I don’t take no truck in snakes, nohow, an’ I made tracks fer my cabin, an’ I was mighty skeery of that place after that. Figgering up whai I seen above the brush an’ on the log, that thar snake was nigh on forty feet long. The Injuns seen his tracks, t0o, an’ tole me so. Why doesn’t some one else see him? Well, didn’t I tole you that he got burnt in that thar fire Lawyer Webb an’ Will Edwards set to break up a nest of rattlers on Deer Creek that run clear over to middie fork of Feather? Think I'd lie about a snake? Think 1 don’t know a snake when I see him no furder away than that thar stove, an’ him a- hissin’? 1 tell youI seen that thar snake, an’ Idon’t care s — what anybody thinks about it. Iseen him sure.” Poor Jack, a few months ago we laid him &way under the pines, but he never had the satisfaction of knowing that those best ac- quainted with him believed him. A few days ject to me, saying, “Lots of folks thinks I'm lying about that snake, but I seen it; sure as you live, I seen it.” —_—— A Rattlesnake, A Polecat, Some Puppies and a Gun. TheExpeHsnuM? nd Mrs. Bradley. There lived about twelve miles southeast of Lower Lake, on the road to Woodland, & man and his wife by the name of Bradley, where they owned a hill ranch, and among other things raised numbers of poultry. To protect this poultry from the depredations of wild animals they had a female dog &nd, at the b 2 time of this occurrence, she had a litter of before his death he again mentioned the sup-, puppies. One day there was quite & commo- tion among the poultry, and on going out to see what was wrong they found a large rattle- snake making havoc among the puppies.ZOn trying to kill it the snake wriggled away quickly to eseape. 5 Bradley and his wife gave chase, whereupon the snake crawlea under the house. In trying to dislodge the snake they scared out a polecat. The man made for the ide of the house to get & gun for the purpose of shooting either the polecat or the snake.or both. While he was absent the polecat made for the puppies. and was proceeding to make away with them. When the man attempted to shoot the polecat and not injure the puppies in any way in shoot- ing he missed the cat altogether and came near shooting his wife in the feet, and while this was going on the snake escaped 1nto the brush along with the polecat. A Veracious Young Lady and a Lot of Blacksnakes. By Miss Gussie Wright. Not far from the little village of Glen Elleny on the banks of the Sonoma Creek, stands & little eabin in which I spent my summer vaca- tion in 1894. 1 found great pleasure in trout- fishing, and also, being of a literary turn of mind, often enjoyed an afternoon under & beautiful spreading live oak either in reading or writing, thus whiling away the idle hours. Armed with my lunch and a good book I started one morning for my favorite retreat, intending to spend the dayin quiet and soli- tude. The branches of the live oak spread in such a way as to form an umbrells, the ends being about six feet from the ground. The morning was strangely beautiful, and, being deeply interested in my book, I took my seat on the ground with the trunk of the tree as a back-rest. 1 must have remained in ‘that position for nearly an hour and a half, when I began to feel thirsty. Glancing up from my book I was somewhat surprised to see & huge blacksnake, about three feet in length, hanging from a limb airectiy in front of me. Being & woman I hastily gathered my be- longings together and was about to retreat when on closer inspection I found the tree to be elive with snakes, hanging from one limb to another in festoons. Closing my eyes with & feeling of terror I darted from under the tree at a speed not to be beaten even by Stanford’s champion girl runner. 5 After satisfying my thirst and quieting my nerves by leaving the tree at a sale distance I again found a seat which had the appearance of being free from snakes and began partaking of my lunch, my mind intent npon my book, when judge my horror at secing a snake’s head protruding over my shoulder in the act oi sampling the bread and butter thatI held in my hand. With a whoop that a university club would be glad to copy Iabandoned the field to the victors. i A Fierce Battle Between Hogs and Rattlesnakes. Witnessed by John Lake. A desperate battle between a horde of rattle- snakes and a drove of hogsoccurred a few days since on John Lake's farm, says the San Jacinto correspondent of the New York World, at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountain, long noted as the den of thousands of deadly brown rettlesnakes. Old man Lake brought from North Carolina a drove of long-nosed, long- legged hogs, “slug-diggers” or “razor-backs.” He hauled over the mountaing twenty-two of these big, bony swine and placed them in pens, where he fed and treated them well. Wnen they were acclimated he released them, and early one cool morning, when the snakes were half benumbed or asleep, he went up the mountain to & spot where he kunew the reptiles dwelt in thousands. Along the pathway he dropped grains of corn until he reached the side of the snakepit, a sunken spot in the mountain side containing about hslf an acre. Here he threw down a bushel of loose corn, and, with his boys Jim and George, took shelter in low trees. Within & few minutes the satisfied grunts of the porkers were heard following the trail of corn until the whole drove of hogs came into view from the underbrush. At the pit side they stood for a minute or two until the old boar came up. He then took the lead and went grunting down ‘the bank into the pit. The other hogs followed until the twenty-two were within the tiny amphitheater. The hogs quickly picked up the corn, but by the time they had thoroughly cleaned it up the snakes, aroused by the heat of the morn- ing sun and the noise of the porkers, began to wiggle from the crevices. Soon several hun- dred raitlers writhed from their holes and looked at the porkers with shining eves and darting tongues. They had not crawled more than thirty or forty feet away from the rocks before the old boar gave a shrill, infuriated squeal. The hogs then charged their enemies, pick- ing them up in their jaws and trampling them under foot, while the snakes shook their rat- tles and struck their enemies with their fangs. The fight ranged for half an hour, & hog re- treating for a moment’s rest and then recharg- ing into the midst of the writhing mass, rip- ving and trampling the serpents until the ground was covered with their bodies. At one time an old boar was almost covered with snakes. He didn’t sppear to care for their bites or their poison, for he reached around, ceught one in his jaws, threw it to the ground, and then held it there with his feet until he tore its body to pieces. He kept this up for half an hour, retreating but once for a . breath of air or a brief rest, when back he went at itagain. 4 1In less than an hour the hogs had conquered, not a snake being left alive except those which had succeeded in regaining their holes. Lake and his boys were so affected by the overpow- ering odor that they were forced to lie under the trees until they recovered. oL e A NARROW Escape From the Fangs of a Rattlesnake. The Experience of William Coombs. William Coombs of Napa tells the following \ story of his narrow escape from being bitten by a “rattler.” ‘Last August I was out camping with a party of friends in Gordonm Valley, near the Solano County line, and one afternoon, accompanied by & sheepherder known as Hugh s I took & stroll up the Blue Mountain to gets view of the surrounding country. Hugh's sheepdog followed us uninvited. “When we reached a point about half way up the ridge we came upon a cool spring of water beneath the shade of a huge liveoak tree, and we sat down here to rest ourselves and to contemplate the delicious scene before us. Below us spread the Gordon Valley shaded beneath the stately oaks and alders which dotted its rich fields and bordered its § ever-running streams, and away to the west, across a low range of bare hills, lay Wooden Valley, bright fringed with verdure and glow- ing with the ripening harvest. “The fatigue of the climb and the peaceful- ness of the scene caused a drowsiness to come over me, and having thrown myself full length on the ground, I was on the point of dropping to sleep when a sharp bark from the sheep- dog aroused me. I opened my eyes, but Hugh bade me be still, tor a large rattlcsnake lay coiled within a few feet of my head. “It was as impossible for me tolie still under such circumstances as to have taken wings and flown. Making a great effort I rolled over and over in the direction away from the snake, but at my first movement the snake struck at me, narrowly missing my neck. Before he could re-coil the sheepdog was upon him and broke his back. Hugh quickly disnatched nim with a stick, and cut off his ratties, of which there were seventeen.” EravEEgpe Battle Royal Between a King Snake and a Rattler. Told by J. C Kesler of Andersom. I was one day detailed to »nack some provi- sions from the store at Whiskytown to a min- er’s cabin on Whisky Creek. Having unloaded the pack from the animal, and tying him and my riding horse to a tree, Isat down to rest, when my attention was attracted by thealarm of a rattlesnake. Catching up my rifie I start- ed down the trail to locate him. The noise, I found, came from an open spot in a scrub oak thicket. Stopping at the verge of the opening Tsaw an immense rattlesnake partly coiled, with about half his body raised in the air. His eyes were flashing, his tongue was darting in and out of his vicious mouth incessantly, and the whirr of his rattles was strung to the highest pitch. ‘I raised my rifle to shoot, when my attention was drawn to something close to me that was moving. Glancing down, I saw it wasa king snake crawling slowly from me. I must have suspended their hostilities by mv sudden ap- pearance, but it was only momentary, for the king snake soon began his operations. He opened up the fight again by running in acircle around the rattler, but out of striking distance. His movements were made with a lightninglike rapidity. After a few moments of this kind of sparring, the king snake ran close to old Crotalus, who struck, but without reckoning the cost, for no sooner did he break his coiled position than his enemy had him cornered. Justas he struck, the king snake’s mouth opened and closed on his body just back of his broad flat head. With the grip of a bulldog the king snake struck. Now the fight was on in dead earnest. It was not to be a common hugging or sparring hippodrome, but a battle roysal to the death. Both snakes were fighting hard, one trying to getecoil about his adversary, the other fighting hard to keep it off, but in less than ten min. utes the king snake had succeeded in wrap- ping his length of 6 feet or more around his enemy. After this was accomplished he began the process of disjointing the rattler. I ob- served as each coil was stretched out there would be & sound similar to the snapping of the thumb and finger. Having completed the work of stretching each coil, he rapidly un- wound himseli, and, again coiling up, jumped away and disappeared into the brush. Upon examining the rattler I found each joint of the vertebrz broken. Insome locali- ties the king snake is called the tiger snake, owing to the bands or rings of black and white that encircle his body. He is the mortal enemy of every snake that creeps exeept his own species. ‘‘Have you heard about young Molard? He has just walked off with 30,000 francs of his employer’s money.” “Ha ! ha! the lucky rascal!” “Besides, he has bolted with your umbrells.” “Oh! the infernal scamp!”—Le Papillon.