Daily globe., 1879-05-26
THE SNAKE BUSINESS.

VIZ EASoOAAo
THE SNAKE BUSINESS.
Snakes have the most extraordinary and
unaccountable penchant for the human fam
lily. Not alone did serpent revolutionize
the fate of mankind, but eyer since in one
way or another it has been wriggling in and
out of mundane affairs, until even those not
given to the prolific source of serpentine Wis
ions begin to be troubled at the reptiles
dangerous obtrusiveness. This alarm is
heightened by reading Of a gentleman in
Philadelphia who has just had a snake re-
moved from his eye, after an optical resi-
dence of twenty years. DR.. Garretson, as
sisted by DR.. Mcclure, removed the cysti-
cercus, which is one of the insinuating and
scientific aliases of the arch enemy, and they
extracted him alive.
This is the first authenticated case of the
cysticercus in the human eye that
has ever occurred on the Ameri-
can continent, although "a hundred
or more cases are recorded in Europe, par
tioularly in Prussia. This peculiar exemp-
ton in our favored land must be attributed
either to the presence of such large and
preponderating representation of the friend
" sons of St. Patrick-or else the serpent
has lost his time-honored cunning, and no
longer makes the most of his opportuni-
ties-else how can we account for his keep
ing out of the physical eyes of all American
citizens, heretofore, save the unpleasantly
favored, yet most renowned Mr.. John j.
Andrews, of 6O8 North Thirteenth street,
Philadelphia /? With freehold lodgings in
the boots, and rare skirmlshing facilities in
rooms, snakes have rayaged the mental ter
ritory, and been terror to the minds eye of
multitudes until the actual possession of MIR.
Andrews might seem soothing in comparison
to numberless afflicted sons of Adam,
| whose wife was the first to intro
duce the snake to her family. In all prob
ability Mr.. Andrews charmed his "devoted
wife, with his snakey left eye, and some
poet ought to write him up as parallel to
Keats Lamia. joaquin Miller hasn't any
job on his hands at present, and he might
as we'll utilize home inspiration, and give us
all the feet-metrical of oourse-of the
charming cysticercus.
No wonder the snake is the symbol o1
eternity to the finite mind. It started witt
the human family, and it has done grea
deal of charming and terrorizing down K
, lied in prose and verse, and monumental
stone. Keats has moved our sympathies il
the seductive story of Lamia's sinuous grace
/ and slippery desertion of her newly weddet
lord under the detective eyes of his sapient ole
+ friend who knew snakes when he saw them
! Oliver Wendell Holmes, in obedience t.
the scientific theories of the age, tries
prove another phase of the snake business
in Elsie Venner, by having it inferred tha
P the introduction of its poison into the huma
g system blunts and warps the moral structure
t On the homeopathic principle it must b
Q clear why whisky and snakes are good fc
o each other, alternately, as the exigency call
u for either. The Holmes theory is solf-ev
o dent, only persons generally don't wait fc
the scientific result. While it is just, a Cas-
of blood poisoning, the experiment is nippe
/ in the bud by copious hbations of whisk
n and the warping process in the moral natul
l IS never allowed to germinate, through und1
Q apprehension. But we are all willing to tai
II the doctors word for it, because if the me-
companionship of the snake in the garde
IS worked such mischief, its poisonous princip
IS is doubtless equal to every emergency I
} perversion. Finally, undue Importance
given to snakes in scripture, story, statuar
etc. Medeisa, with her unique headdres
70 LAGOON, invested with snaky festoons; ant
e. in little while, Phineas T. Barnum, vii
% glass cases full of the living, cool, charmil
g enemy will be on hand to show that Il
IN snake business isn't in any immediate dang
IS of languishing.