The Silver State

A Deadly Boot.

The Grass Valley Union says: One of the most singular cases of rattlesnake poisoning on record has occurred near Chico.

As the result of wearing a boot into which one of the venomous reptiles had plunged its fangs, two men are dead, another life was despaired of for some time, and the original owner of the boot owes his existence to the fact that he discarded the footwear immediately after he had been attacked by the snake.

One day last week Thomas Horton was passing through a piece of cleared land when he was struck by a rattlesnake. The reptile was shedding its skin, and was therefore in its most venomous condition. The serpent's fangs penetrated one of Horton's cowhide boots, and the snake was easily killed. Horton discarded his boots, and his wife gave them to Napoleon Meeker, a negro who worked on an adjoining farm. He wore them, and died. Archibald Hooker, a nephew of the dead man, wore them forty-eight hours, and he also died in great agony.

The boots then passed into the hands of an old trapper. The second day he wore them he was attacked by a pain in his leg. His experience told him that it was the result of rattlesnake poisoning. He used a remedy in time and recovered.

On examining the boots he found a small pointed piece of bone imbedded in the leather. It was the fang of the snake placed in such a position that in drawing the foot from the boot the fang, which curved upward, would not injure it, but in putting the boot on it would be almost impossible to escape a slight scratch.