The Osceola times., 1881-05-21
THE CAPITAL IN SNAKES.
The side-show Man Preparing for His sum
msr Trip-serpents as BED Fellows

msr Trip-ssrpents as BED Fellows.
New York sun.
The man of whom garish side show
canvas representing a snake charmer
entwined with snakes is descriptive, sa,
by his box OF reptiles in his home in
Brooklyn a few days ago, filling some
bottles with hot water to keep them
warm. "This has been q hard winter on
my snakes" he said as he placed some
of the bottles beneath the blankets upon
which a boa constructor and an anaconda
were coiled, "and | have had hard work
TO keep them. ] have to keep them
warm all the time, and the simplest way
is to put them in a tight box of thick
pine, with glass strip in the sides, to
crowd in as many blankets as are need
ed, and to pile bottles of hot water in
the center, so that the snakes can coil
around them. | have lost $500 worth Of
snakes by the cold weather heretofore,
and as these snakes are worth about $3.50
each, | am careful of them, because there
is no life insurance company for snakes
you know"
"Once | was travelling in the North.
west with six snakes, anacondas, bOas
and black snakes, and we were caught
in cold snap. had no way of warm
ing them, and ! saw that they were
beginning to get chilled. You can't
build fire for them, you know. You
have to have peculiar appliances to heat
them, such a. they have in the menagA
erie AT Central Park, where the snake
hes upon 4 sheet iron shelf warmed by
all oil stove. knew that Ia delay was
to lose all my properly, SO ! had a bed
made for myself, ana covered with
blankets. Tl,u cfaWlcd in and lifted
my snakes in after me. | slept al, night
with those six snakes in my bed. have
known men in bed 10 see suale es when
there were none around, but ! had 'cm'
in reality, and | count it The most profit
able night ever spent
when do you feed the snakes?'
"OnCe in three mUnlhs-lour meals q
year breakfast, lunch, dinner and sup
per"
"What do they eat?"
Rabbits, guinea pigs. frogs, young
chickens, pigeons, always living ngcrcatures.
| put an animal into the box and the
sn Ike strikes it once with its tail and il
l. as dead rs though Lightning had struck
il. Then the snake throws one coil
around It and Crushes every bone in its
body. Next il elects Il slime all Over it,
and, stretching ont, gulps it down whole.
1t is wonderful how il swallows a mass
several times bigger than its body"
Does the animal make a meal?"
'No, it takes about six. | VIII feed TO
these two a dozen young chickens in
about three weeks, and that will last
them until summer"
,Et,v., l. l. sat .r
their owner allowed them TO entwine
themselves around his arm, kiss his
cheeks and lips, and crawl around his
body and down his legs.
"Oh," he said, they are as harmless
as doves and as Nise az serpents. The
torked tongue which you see is not
poisonous. The popular Impression is
/ that the snake uses thSi1 dart its
venom. but the fact is that i, is only a
feelcr 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. am careful TO
see that they don't coil around my
| throat for they might choke me 10
| death in "A very few minutes. | have
| been bitten by them several times on
/ the face, but the wound is not dangerous
1t inhames some. showing hat there is
slight poison IN the bite, and although
slow in curing, it finally heals without
A scar. A rattlesnake has hollow fang
with which It bite,, and at the same
instant elects a stream of poison as
though from a tiny syringe into the
wound. | have extracted these faugs,
but in few months others grow in
their places. | have handled rattle
snakes in In7 time, but don't like their
company. 1t requires skill to handle
them, but don't consider that It dos
to handle b0as and 2nacOudas. The -kilI
with them IS in keeping them il con.
dition. This climate ic very hard on the
tropical snakes
"Are there snake doCtors?"
81 am the only one. believe, have
snake medicines. The best remedy lol
tAeir sickness is burnt alum and white
honey; but when n snak vbegins to 90 IL.
bard to save him.
"Ilow DO you transport the snakes?'
ain box in glass cage. ! ride 10
costume in the stage in procession
with the snakes crawling over me.
allow no one else to handle them. Ny
whole capital Is in snakes"