Waterbury Democrat

SNAKES PLAYED TUNES.
Old Colorado Plainsman Heard
Reptile Family Rattle Off Pop-
ular Airs.

"Yes, sir," said the old plainsman,
as he stood before a den of rattlers
at the Lincoln park zoo, to a Chicago
Inter Ocean reporter, "I don't allow
there's a more interestin' rep-tile
-goin' than this here same breed.
There is those as places the intel-
leet of the rattlesnake on a low or-
der an' I don't know as they have as
good workin' brain as a Gila mon-
ster or a tarantular, but I do know
this: Their appreciation of the art
of music is profound an' stirrin'.
They takes to it like one of these
mere Wagner fellows does to a Theo-
dore Thomas concert. An' they're
smart to learn, lemme tell you!

"Up in Routt county, Colorado,
where I come from, there is most
rattlesnakes and sagebrush an' a few
people huntin'. I remember a party
of hunters passin' that-a-way last
fall. In the evenin's they set about
the camp singin' an' there was some
mandolins along. Three or four
times the party was scairt out by
snakes that crept into camp to hear
the music, though they should a-
known better'n to be, for there's no
harm in a rattler when there's mu-
sic goin'.

"But that ain't the curious part of
the tale which I'm unfoldin'. I was
along that place some time after the
campers broke up and was attracted
by a low musical sound from behind
the bowlder. Knowin' somethin' of
tunes, I was s'prised to catch the
chorus of one of the coon songs that
had been popular with the campers.
It was the one they sing down to
the Chicago opera house, Ain't that
a Shame? Ponderin' over it, I crept
up on top of the bowlder an' looked
over at some flat rocks on the other
side. It was a sight never to fergit.
A chorus of ten rattlers had their
tails in the air and was poundin' out
the song for all they was worth! I
lay there fascinated, and, by ginger
before they got through they done
The Holy City' an' 'Go Way Back and
Sit Down' as well's I ever heard em
done. Kill 'em? 'Twould been a
crime to break up a musieal family
like that."