The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-11
HIS CAPITAL IN SNAKES.
The side-show Man Preparing for HI
summer Trip-serPents as Bed-Fel
New York SUM-

summer Trip-Serpents as Bed-Fel
lows.
New York SUM-
The man Of whom a garnish side-show
canvas representing a snake chaTmer en-
twined with snakes is descriptive sat by his
days ago, filing some bottles with hot water
to keep them warm. "This has been
hard winter on my snakes" he said, as he
placed some of the bottles beneath the blan-
kets upon which boa constructor and an
anaconda were coiled, "and have to work
to keep them warm. / have to keep them
warm all the time, and the simplest way is
toput them in tight box of thick pine, with
glass strips in the sides, to crowd in as many
blankets as are needed, and to pile bottles
Of hot water in the center, so that the snakes
can crawl around them. L have lost $500 worth
of snakes by the cold weather heretofore,
and as these two are worth about $50 each
l am careful of them because there is no life
insurance company for snakes, you know.
"Once / was travelling in the Northwest
with six snakes, anacondas, boas, and black
snakes, and we were caught in cold snap. l
had no way Of warming them, and / saw
that they were beginning to get chilled.
Yout can't build fire for them, you know.
You have TO have peculiar appliances to heat
Them such as they have in the menagerie at
Central Park, where the snake lies upon q
sheet-irOn shelf warmed by al oil stove.
knew that to delay was to lose all my prop
erty, so / had bed made for myself, and
covered with blankets. Then crawled in
and lifted my snakes in after me. / slept all
night with those six snakes in my bed.
have known men in bed to see snakes when
there were none around, but had 'em that
night in reality, and L count it the most
profitable night / ever spent"
when do you feed the snakes?'
"Once in three months-four meals a year
breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper"
"What do they eat?"
Rabbits, guinea pigs, frogs, young
chickens, pigeons, always living creatures.
put an animal into the box and the snake
strikes it once with his tail, and it is as dead
as though lightning had struck it. Then
the snake throws one cell around it and
brushes every bone in its body. Next it
elects a slime all over it, and stretching out,
gulps it down whole. 1t is wonderful how
it swallows q mass several times bigger than
its body"
"Does one animal make a meal?"
"No, it takes about six. / will feed to
these two about dozen young chickens in
about three weeks, and that will last them
until summer"
Lifting his snakes out of the box, their
owner allowed them to entwine themselves
around his arm, kiss his cheeks and lips,
and crawl around his body and down his
legs.
"0h," he said, "they are as harmless as
doves and as wise as serpents. The forked
tongue which you see is not poisonous. The
popular impression is that the snake uses
this to dart its venom. but the fact is that it
is only feeler for the snake during its
period Of blindness, just before it sheds its
skin. These snakes have only one weapon,
and that is their coil. 1 am careful to see
that they don't coil around my throat, for
they might choke me to death in a very
few minutes. have been bitten by them
several times on the face, but the wound is
not dangerous. 1t infames some, showing
that there is slight poison In the bite, and
although slow in curing, it finally heals
without a scar. The rattlesnake has a hol-
low fang with which it bites, and at the
same instant it elects stream of poison as
though from a tiny syringe into the wound.
have extracted these fangs, but in a few
months others grow in their places. L have
handled rattlesnakes in my time, but don't
lho 1holI OOihphhy' ~ IequHos shlil 10
handle them, but L don't consider that it
does 10 handle boas and anacondas. The
skill with them is in keeping them in con-
dition. This climate is very hard on the
tropical snakes"
"Are there snake doctors2"
81 am the only one, 1 believe. 1 have
snake medicines. The best remedy for their
sickness is burnt alum and white honey;
but when a snake begins to go it's hard to
save him."
allow do you transport the snakes?"
"In box in glass cage. j ride in COS
tune in the stage IN a procession, with the
snakes crawling over me. / allow no one
else to handle them. Ny whole capital is
snakes"