St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-16


teen feet long, and twined part of him
about her head, turban fashion, and
then twisted the rest of him around her
neck. If he had squeezed just once
with half of his giant power that would
have been the end of Alma Don Janata' S
earthly career. He seemed uneasy and
wriggled considerably until she Soothed
him with couple of friendly pats on
the top of his ugly, angular head. When
he lay still she logged out more and
more, and arrayed herself in them until
she was quite dressed in deadly anacOn-
daS and pythOnS. She smiled and bowed
and held up giant boa constructor IN
each hand. One weighed forty-five
pounds, the other fifty-fve. Altogether
she was holding up some 315 pounds of
live, treacherOuS snake meat, apt at any
time to shuttle off her mortal coil with
neatnesS and dispatch. There was a
high fence of iron network all around
her, so the spectators weren't in any
danger of being Rugged to death. The
charmer could have caught any stray
gler who might want to start on little
killing excursion long before he got
over the fence. One python did try to
get away, and she yanked him into his
box and dropped the lid before he quite
knew what was going on.
After the Snakc-charming act was
over reporter saw Alma Don Janata in
that wonderful three acres of Madison
Square Garden territory commonly
known as ''behind the scenes"
s'How did become snake charmer?"
she repeated. 'Why, that isn't easy to
tell. Ihave always liked snakes. l was
born in New York and this city has al
ways been my home. used to love to
watch the snakes in their glass cage in
Central park when was little girl.
They always had fascination for me.
My people are in the show business, and
when | grew up l went to work as a
high-wire performer in the circus. /
saw the famous Dana Atlanta, the Hin
doc girl who charmed snakes here some
years ago. She was tall and 1.-THE and
almost slender as a snake. While
performing with her pets she almost
seemed to be snake. She moved and
acted like one. Seeing her started me
thinking why an American girl couldn't
do something in that way. l made up
my mind not to initiate her, but to get
up snake act of my own. In the
fall of 1878 | bought four little
anacondas-th were only six feet long
each-and began to practice with them.
| got them used to having me around
and to being handled Didn't it feel
creepy at fist? Yes, a little, | suppose,
but Pve nearly forgotten about that
now. When they were quite accustomed
to being handled began to Irvine them
around myself. Did [ charm them?
No. l don't take any stock in the the
cries of so-called snake charmers. [
find that you can get along very nicely
with snakes by merely handling them
gently.
are drugged before being handled in the
circus. That is not so. They are quite
saying Miss Jeffreys handed her visitor
long, plump boa constructor. The
young man felt pale, but pretended to
like the sport. The sensation was much
like that you enjoy when proud young
mother hands You three-weeks-old
baby and asks you if you don't think
the dear little boy is quite
heavy for his age Boa constructors
and babies are so uncertain. Mistaking
the young mans hollow, mOcking smile
for sign of real joy, Miss Jeffreys put
Foreground anaconda into his left
hand. He was cold clammy cuss and
wriggled increasingly. The snakes eyed
each other like ROSTERS who want fight,
and the young man handed tnem DacK
very suddenly. "It's simple enough,
you see," said Miss Jeffreys. ''You just
take hold of them boldly [could that
have been sarcasm?l and you'll get
along very nicely with snakes. don't
use rattlesnakes or cobras, because they
are poisonous. The anacondas and py-
thons grow very fast. That long anaconda
measures fully fourteen feet. He was
only six feet long when L got him in
1888,
''Ob, yes, get bitten once in while.
You see my hands are full of little scars.
They are from python and anaconda
teeth mostly. That big one on the Md
die knuckle of the second finger on my
right hand was made by fourteen
foot ply thon which weighed 100 pounds.
was feeding my snakes a few months
ago, and the big python, in darting
after chicken that was getting away,
accidentally closed his jaws OH my hand.
In an instant he had two coils around
my arm and was just about til crush me
to death. / did't want anybody to Kill
him, for he was worth S175, and, of
course, / was afraid of being killed, and
was very uncomfortable. Old John Full
ton picked up a drumstick from the
band stand and pried open the python's
mouth That rattIad him and hp lar on