Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-11-11
A serpent's Squeeze.
Fighting fer Life in a Cago.

up for several days. I had observed this snake, a female about fourteen feet long, in one of the dens, and from the white effiorescence about her lips, knew that she was suffering from carries of the jaw with ulceration of the mucous membrane, so fatal to snakes in con- tinemcnt; and having pointed this out to NJ. Vekemann, the resident director, l obtained his permission to make trial of an ointment which believed 1 had found efficacious in the early stage of the disease among my own snakes.
 l came on the following morning, armed with my ointment; but the lady had betaken herself into crevice of the rocks, where one could scarcely catch sight of her, much less get at her. There were other pythons in the cage, some of them nearly twenty feet long, some not more than five or six; but though they projected their heads and commence ed to hiss, they did not attempt to at tack; and the keeper, an intelligent man who spoke French, said they would not come at us if we did not touch them. A little one jumped harmlessly at my leg as stepped over him. For three days the pythoness remained in her rocky, or rather plastery, retreat; but on the fourth I caught sight of her at the very top of the cage, and at once climbed up and brought her down. The poor things mouth was in worse state than had anticipated, She came down quietly enough, and though nervous, was not spiteful, and allowed me to handle her.
 Now, as ill-luck would have it, the regular keeper was absent on this par ticu!ar morning, and his place was fill ed for the time by another from some other part of the gardens, who spoke nothing but Flemish, of which tongue I am as profoundly ignorant as he most certainly was of the creatures under his temporary charge. went into the den with him, taking it for granted, of course, that he was accustomed to snakes, and gave him the box of oint- ment to hold until was ready to use 1t.
 When had brought the pythoness fairly down to the floor, gripped her hard by the neck, which had the effect as intended it to have, and as it al- ways has with snakes-of making her open her mouth. 1 pressed her head away from me at the same time, to pre- vent her catching hold of any part of my clothing. in her efforts to bite. In her fright and rage, she drew her body up across my back, and twisted her tail round and round my other arm. All that 1 now required of the keeper was, by teasing or pinching her here and there, or by unwinding the tail when necessary, to cause her to shift her coils constantly, and prevent her resting long enough on one spot to apply undue pres sure. My face 1 could protect for my self with the left hand. This l con- cluded he understood, as a matter of course.
 turned round to make & sign to him to be ready and to give me the oint- mcnt, when, judge of my dismay I caught sight of his stolid face, with a sUt of duh, impartial interest omit, look ing at me through the glass in front and the door closed on the outsidei He had got frightened by the noise of the other pytaoas, and had quietly gone out again.
 1 was about to make an impatient gesture, when in the same instant the serpent frightened on me so suddenly and violently that 1 momentarily lost consciousness. 1 then found myself staggering about the den, fighting for life. 1 expected to feel my ribs give way every moment. yet my chief fear at the same time was of falling through the glass.
 I pushed the reptiles head away from me with all my might, lest it should cross my breast, and l can remember catching sight of myself, mulberry colored figure, in the mirror. I knew, too, that 1 was trampling about over the other pvthons, who, furious at the dis turbance. were now darting about the den above and all around me in every direction; and l exerted every energy to keep my feet, for had presence of down it would be all over with me.
 The heat was stifiing. 1 could bear it no longer. The cage spun madly round and round before my eyes, and every thing seemed to flame and roar. let go the head. The snake twisted sharply back over my right shoulder close to my face, but did not bite me, and slid off on to the ground. 1 just recollect falling against the door with outstretched hands, but nothing more until found myself sitting on the steps outside, coughing violently, while the 1 phlegmatic keeper was putting a hot key down my back, for some occult req son. 1 brought up little blood, and drank little brandy, after which l soon got better; but I was not well enough to walk home. and the bruise in my side did not fade for many day. l suppose the whole affair did not last more than a few seconds. but I found it quite long enough. Fortunately the snake had only small part of her body across my left side and back; had she encircled me with whole coil should have been crushed like an egg-shell.
 Curiously enough. my left arm was quite paralyzed, and did not fully re- l cover the use of it for week. I did not know it at the time, but she must have pressed her tail under my armpit, and so compressed the nerves. The ac- cident was one of the stupidest and most preventable in the world, and was entirely owing to my taking the wrong man into the cage to assist me. 1 may add that l went in some days later with the proper keeper, and performed the operation. not only without danger, but without the least difficulty.
 It is estimated that nearly 2,000, ,000.' 900 pounds of paper are produced an, nually; one half of which is used for printing. sixth for writing, and the remainder is coarse paper for packing and nfhnr Tho T1nirnH fofo