St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-29
ALONDON MYSTERY.
FOUNDED ON FACT.
(By Joseph Hatton, Author of ''Clytie," etc. J
AT THE zoo.

written Tor Inc GIoDe-
was strolling into the Geological garden:
In lazy mood on Friday afternoon to listen
to lecture on Snakes.
Congratulate me, old chap!" exclaimed
an impulsive voice at the gates, and turned
to find Reggy Gardner at my elbow. "Can't
stay now just off TO the lawyers" he said
as be hailed a passing hanson.
''What is it all about Reggy?"
81 am going to be married She's the
loveliest woman in the worldI Come and
lunch with me at the club tomorrow, and
then go home to my mother's-you'n see hel
there"
AS his hanson drove off I looked after
my bright, CHEEKY, lucky friend, just enter
ing life with a newly-inherited fortune
Reggy Gardner was typical young English
man, broad-shouldered, sturdy, fair-haired,
grey-eyed and beaming with health.
Snakes, as l suppose you know, decline
TO accept food which they have not killed
themselves. The serpent mind seems to
obtain unmixed satisfaction from the terror
of its victims. Neither the anaconda nor
the common boa kills its ducks and rabbits,
doves and guinea pigs at once.
They are like wicked lawyers who keep
their clients about them, pretending that
they never mean to swallow them, estates
and all. Now and then long before the fatal
blow is struck the victims discover their
danger and then it is dreadful to watch their
terror develop and grow into madness. The
melanc holv cries of a couple of fowls could
be heard in the serpent house at the zoo.
The crowds of lockers on were breathlessly
watching the iuttering of dove which one
Of the serpents had just seized, and the
death agouies of a rabbit which the rattle
snake, poked up by the keeper, had kindly
bitten. Ptiful tragedies were being enacted
In every cage. On the score of science peo-
pie 90 on Fridays to see the reptiles fed. Prof.
Huxley does not lecture in the snake
house; or be would probably say some bitter
things to the morbid audiences which collect
there. was about to seek the intellectual
recluse of the lecture room, when the face of
L woman arrested my attention.
1t was a cold, cruel, beautiful counte-
nance, classic in its severity, with blue eyes
and lips that had no red in them. The nose
came down in straight line from the low
forehead, and was chiseled at the nostrils.
The mouth was rather a contradiction to the
other part of the face. 1t was sensual, yet
without touch of the generosity that some
times modiies the sensual so much that we
only call it sensuous. Madame's eyes were
not looking at me- They were fixed on the
anaconda, which had Just uncurled itself
l.. 8
that were retreating before it. Suddenly,
from an expression of intense expectation,
the cold. cruel face was lighted up with an
ger The next moment fan was dashed
against the glass to urge the birds into the
jaws of the serpent. Madame was tired of
waiting for the end. A thrill of indignation
ran through me.
This is no place for ladies' I said aloud
to the keeper, that she might hear me- but
she continued an unrestrained and active
ally OF the serpent intent upon forcing the
tragic destiny of the imprisoned birds.
Then all of sudden there was hurried
movement of the snake, futter of feathers
and an expiring cry. The anaconda had
begun to feed.
Madame gave a little sigh of satisfaction,
and, casting frigid glance at me, moved
away. Then found she was not alone Her
cavalier was u foreigner, who looked like a
faded parsonage matrculating for Tussaud.
Ny thoughts, however, were not Of him, but
of her; and, as | strolled home, wondering
at the ombnstion of angel and demon
which is sometimes found in female beauty,
] called this lady "Adrastia," as the resem-
biance TO an Italian picture of the goddess
flashed upon me- a head full of strange
beauty, the hair cluster of writhing ser
penis, face of lovely forbiddingness, with
the agony of the serpent's tooth in it, and
vet about the mouth the calm, crude death
like expression Of a Nemesis, the two faces
were like and unlike; and the living one took
the place of the other in my mind eclipsing
the picture, vet recalling shadowy reminis-
cences of it, Adrastia never looked so glad
when the victims she slew deserved the death
It was her duty to provide, as did this lady in
the London snake house when the anaconda
swooped down upon its living food. Clytem-
nestra might have worn a similar expression
when she murdered Agamemnon; and yet
called the woman Of the zoo Adrastia,
and gave her, in my imagination, a fitting
hcad-dress of snakes and serpents.
IL